
Class 







Book._l 



Copyright^?- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



'N 



3f £ 



FOODS 

Nutrition and Digestion 



KNOW THYSELF SERIES 



Second Edition 



The author, in giving remedial exercises and 
diet prescribed to suit the individual need, has 
for ten years realized the necessity of a book 
which shall give to the homemaker a clear idea 
of the uses of foods, that she may be able to 
compile her own diets for various blood condi- 
tions. Since the blood is made from food ele- 
ments, its conditions can be largely controlled 
by a knowledge and regulation of these ele- 
ments. 

Acknowledgment is here made of the valuable 
assistance of Winfield S. Hall, Ph. D., M. D., 
Professor of Physiology of Northwestern Medi- 
cal School, Lecturer and Author of Nutrition and 
Dietetics ; of Alida Frances Pattee, late instructor 
of Dietetics Bellevue Training School for Nurses, 
Bellevue Hospital, New York City, author of 
"Practical Dietetics with reference to Diet in 
Disease/' and of D. Appleton & Co., for their 
kindness in allowing the use of Dr. Hall's tables 
of food values, in the preparation of this book. 

The tables of Food Values and the classifica- 
tions of foods are kindly furnished by Dr. Hall 
and used by the courtesy of his publishers, while 
a few of the receipts are generously furnished 
by Miss Pattee. 

Recognition is also made of the good work 
of Miss Helen Hammel, former dietitian in 
Wesley Hospital, Chicago, in the preparation of 
some of the receipts in the Appendix. 



-\ 






FOODS 
Nutrition and Digestion 



BY 

Susanna Cocroft 

u 

author of 

Growth in Silence 

Self Sufficiency 

The Vital Organs 

Habits: The Nerves 

Poise and Symmetry of Figure 

Character as Expressed in the Body 

Ideals and Privileges of Woman 

Etc.. Etc. 

originator of the 

Physical, Culture Extension Society 



First Edition 1906 
Second 'Edition 1912 



Published by the 

Physical Culture Extension Society 

624 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. III. 






Copyright, 1906-1912 
by Susanna Cocroft 



€C!.A3140S7 



FOODS 

Nutrition and Digestion 

BY 

Susanna Cocroft 

The problem of proper nutrition for the 
body is as vital as any study affecting the, 
morals, health, and consequent power of 
a nation, since upon the quality and quan- 
tity of food assimilated, depend the suste- 
nance, health, and strength of its citizens. 

The study of life is the most vital inter- 
est in nature. The human race spends 
more time in providing nourishment for 
the body than in any other line of activity. 
Next to nourishment comes self-preserva- 
tion. It is intuitive, the infant's first in- 
stinct is the preservation of life ; almost at 
once he seeks for nourishment. His body 

11 



is ever an awakening wonder to him. He 
begins his education by a study of his 
hands, his legs, and his flesh. 

"The physical satisfactions of life, the 
joys of mental development, the inspira- 
tion of soul, the sense of growth, of expan- 
sion, and of largest happiness, the self-sat- 
isfaction of greatest usefulness, and the 
glorifying results of this usefulness, come 
in largest measure only to the person whose 
nutriment is proper in quantity, quality, 
and form and is taken properly, as to time, 
mastication, swallowing, and digestion, 
with sufficient exercise to give the body 
activity to convert it into use. This enjoy- 
ment of vibrant life is far beyond the joys 
of the intemperate or the aesthetic." That 
ones energies of thought may not be con- 
stantly engaged in deciding what is best, it 
is important that proper habits be formed. 
Habit calls for no conscious energy. 

Scientific research along the lines of 
electricity, psychology, metaphysics, medi- 
cine, and art has been tenaciously pursued 
for centuries; yet scientific study of the 
natural means of keeping the body in 
health, that the individual may be in phys- 
ical, mental, and moral condition to enjoy 
and to profit by researches made in other 

12 



lines, has been neglected. The result is, 
that man does not enjoy life to the full, 
nor make his physical nor mental efforts 
yield the best returns. 

It is necessary to know the comparative 
values of foods as nutrient agents, in order 
to maintain our bodies in health and 
strength, and with economy of digestive 
effort, as well as efficiency. The entire 
body, — bone, muscle, blood, brain, nerve, 
heat and energy, — is formed from the food 
and drink taken into the stomach and from 
the oxygen breathed into the lungs; the 
mental and physical activity also depends 
upon the food. There is no study, there- 
fore, more important than that of bodily 
nutrition and the preparation of food and 
drink in right proportions to yield the best 
returns under varying conditions, — age, 
employment, health, and sickness. 

Nutrition is a broad subject. It means 
not only that the foods be supplied which 
contain elements required to rebuild body 
substance and to create heat and energy, 
but it embraces, also, the ability of the body 
to appropriate the foods to its needs. The 
study of nutrition in its full sense, there- 
fore, must embrace foods, anatomy and 
physiology (particularly of the digestive 
system), and chemistry, in order to know 

13 



the changes foods must undergo in being 
converted into tissue, heat and energy* 
This study, reduced to a science, is known 
as Dietetics. There is no more important 
study for public schools, or for woman's 
clubs. 

Nutrition must be solved largely through 
chemistry. The health €jnd efficiency of 
the individual and of the -Nation depend 
upon careful study of the- chemical com- 
ponents of foods and the 'control of the 
foods placed upon the market. The 
" pound of cure" in the study of materia 
medica has been given much thought, — 
the " ounce of prevention," little. 

The former custom of employing a phys- 
ician as a retainer had its distinct ad- 
vantage, his duty being to instruct in right 
living so as to avoid disease rather than 
to cure it. To-day scientific instruction in 
food and hygiene is within the reach of all, 
and every mother and teacher is a re- 
tainer, or guard of the health of those in 
her charge. 

Happily, the United States Government, 
realizing that its power as a nation depends 

* It is impossible in this book to go into the anatomy and 
physiology of digestion exhaustively. — The reader is respectfully 
referred to Miss Cocroft's book upon "The Vital Organs: their 
Use and Abuse." This traces the food through the digestive 
canal, indicating the juices which act upon it, putting it into 
a necessary state to be absorbed by the body and appropriated to 
its various uses. 

14 



upon the strength and health of its citi- 
zens, has established experimental and 
analytical food departments. As a result 
of the findings of the governmental chem- 
ists, there was enacted in 1906, the Food 
and Drug Act, which aims to raise the 
standard of food purity, by prescribing 
the conditions under which foods may be 
manufactured and sold. The law compels 
the maker of artificially colored or pre- 
served food products to correctly label his 
goods. The national law was the instiga- 
tion of state laws, which have further 
helped to insure a supply of pure food 
products. 

Every particle of body substance is con- 
stantly changing. The new material for 
cells and tissues, the substance to supply 
the energy needed in the metabolic work 
of tearing down and rebuilding, the energy 
used in the digestive process of converting 
the food into condition to be assimilated, 
and the energy used in muscular, brain, 
and nerve movement, must all be supplied 
by food. Every brain effort in the process 
of thinking, every motion, and every mus- 
cular movement requires energy which 
the food must supply. 

Brain workers, or habitual worriers, use 
up force and become thin quite as quickly 

\ 



as those whose work is muscular. The 
term " brain workers" is commonly ap- 
plied to professional men or women, — to 
authors, editors, teachers, or to those en- 
gaged in business, but the woman who 
manages her household judiciously, or the 
woman who spends her life fretting over 
existing conditions, or worrying over 
things which never happen, uses quite as 
much brain force. The difference is that 
the former accomplish results outside of 
themselves, while the latter simply stirs up 
disagreeable conditions within, resulting 
in physical ills. 

The whole problem of perfect health and 
efficient activity is in keeping the supply 
assimilated food equal to the demand, in 
keeping a forceful circulation that the 
nourishment mag freely reach all tissues 
and the waste be eliminated, and in full 
breathing habits that sufficient oxygen be 
supplied to put the waste in condition for 
elimination. 

The body is certainly a marvelous 
machine! It is self -building, self -repair- 
ing, and, to a degree, self-regulating 

16 



It appropriates to its use food-stuffs for 
growth and for repair. 

It eliminates its waste. 

It supplies the energy for rebuilding, 
and eliminating this waste. 

It directs its own emotions. 

It supplies the energy for these emo- 
tions. 

It discriminates in the selection of food 
and casts out refuse and food not needed. 

It forms brain cells and creates mental 
force with which to control the organism. 

It keeps in repair the nerves, which are 
the telegraph wires connecting the brain 
with all parts of the body. 

It converts the potential energy in the 
food into heat with which to keep itself 
warm. 

Withal it is not left free to do its 
work automatically. It has within it a 
higher intelligence, a^ spiritual force, which 
may definitely hamper its workings by get- 
ting a wrong control of the telegraph 
wires, thus interfering with the digestion, 
the heart action, the lungs and all meta- 
bolic changes. The right exercise of this 
higher intelligence, in turn, depends upon 
the condition of the body, because when the 
mechanism of the body is out of repair it 
hampers mental and spiritual control. 

17 



Surely man is marvelously made ! 

The intelligent care of the body, — the 
temple through which the soul communi- 
cates with material conditions, — is a Chris- 
tian duty. "The priest with liver trouble 
and the parishioner with indigestion, do 
not evidence that skilled Christian living 
so essential to the higher life." 

Certain it is that improper foods affect 
the disposition, retard the spiritual growth 
and change the drift of one's life and of 
the lives about one. 

Man has become so engrossed and 
hedged about with the complex demands of 
social, civic, and domestic life, all of which 
call for undue energy and annoyance and 
lead him into careless or extravagant hab- 
its of eating and living, that he forgets to 
apply the intelligence which he puts into 
his business to the care of the machine 
which does the work. Yet the simple laws 
of nature in the care of the body, are 
plainer and easier to follow than the com- 
plex habits which he forms. The "simple 
life" embraces the habits of eating as well 
as the habits of doing and of thinking. 



18 



PURPOSES OF FOOD 

The purposes of food are : 

To supply the material of which the 
body is made 

To rebuild tissue, which is con- 
stantly being torn down and eliminated. 

To produce heat, and to supply 
muscular and mental energy. 

Let us discuss these purposes in above 
order. 

By food supply is meant not only 
«° * that the proper foods in kind and 

pp y quantity be eaten, but that the body 
be in condition to digest, absorb, and as- 
similate the foods, and to eliminate the 
waste, otherwise the foods fail to supply 
the body needs. It is the nourishment 
which the body assimilates and appropri- 
ates to its needs which counts in food econ- 
omy. 

19 



Of the fifteen to twenty substances con- 
tained in foods and comprising the body, 
the most abundant are oxygen, hydrogen, 
carbon, nitrogen, chlorin, sodium, potas- 
sium, magnesium, iron, calcium, phos- 
phorus, and sulphur. All living matter, 
plant or animal, contains oxygen, hydro- 
gen, carbon and nitrogen ; the difference in 
the form and use of the matter is in the 
proportions of these elements. 

Carbon combined with oxygen forms 
carbon dioxid. Hydrogen, nitrogen, and 
carbon dioxid form the air. Oxygen and 
hydrogen form water. Calcium, iron, mag- 
nesium, sodium, and potassium form the 
majority of rocks. 

The substances contained in living 
organisms are the same as those in inor- 
ganic matter, only in different complex- 
ities as appropriated to each need. This 
difference in complexity of combinations 
of the same elements in a body is the phys- 
ical difference between a living and a non- 
living plant or animal. 

By far the most important change which 
the food must undergo to convert it from 
raw material into a state for conversion 
into body needs is the chemical change. 
While the body needs carbon, it cannot 
use coal; it needs nitrogen, yet it canno* 

20 



appropriate it to rebuilding bone and 
muscle until, by chemical action with other 
elements within, it has been converted into 
complex substances called proteins ; again, 
the chemical action of oxygen breaks down 
the proteins. 

The muscles, ligaments, and labor-per- 
forming structures contain the largest 
amount of proteins; the fats and the car- 
bohydrates contain the largest amount of 
carbonaceous compounds; the brain, the 
nerves, and the bones contain the largest 
portion of phosphorous compounds; yet, 
while the brain contains phosphorus, and 
the muscles nitrogen, the brain cannot be 
built up by eating elementary phosphorus, 
nor the muscles by pure nitrogen, but 
compounds rich in phosphorus or nitro- 
gen may be utilized. It has been demon- 
strated by scientific investigation that no 
unorganized element is assimilated by the 
system and converted into its various 
structures. 

The gluten of wheat is built up by the 
chemical union of nitrogen in the air and 
nitrogen in the soil with other substances. 
Plants are able to use the simple com- 
pounds of the earth, air, and soil, and, 
within their own cells, build them up into 
such complex substances as starch, sugar, 

21 



protein, fat, and salt, which are appropri- 
ated by the animal kingdom for further 
growth and change. 

In its conversion into tissue, heat, en- 
ergy, and waste, the importance of the 
chemical exceeds the mechanical action, 
snch as digestion, absorption, assimilation, 
and elimination; yet the chemical changes 
are aided by the mechanical. 

Each individual should know, approxi- 
mately, the chemical constituents and the 
proportion of these constituents in normal 
blood, because from the elements in the 
blood, the tissues are constructed. If cer- 
tain elements be lacking, the foods contain- 
ing these elements in largest proportions 
should be supplied until the blood no longer 
shows the deficiency. This is Nature's 
method of correction. 

Each meal, or each day's food, may not 
contain just the amounts of protein or of 
fuel ingredients necessary for that day's 
work and re-supply, but the body is con- 
tinually storing material, and this reserve 
is constantly being drawn upon to provide 
any element which may be lacking in 
that day's supply. Thus, an excess or a 
deficiency one day may be adjusted the 
next. Healthful nourishment requires that 
the balance, as a whole, be kept, and that a 



deficiency or over-supply be not continued 
for too long. 

Many domestic animals take their food 
elements from air and water, as well as 
from the compounds which the plants have 
formed; while others make use of meat, a 
compound formed by another animal. The 
digestive forces of the animal has con- 
verted these elements into flesh, a com- 
pound easily assimilated by another. 

The greater part of the muscles, nerves, 
and glands of the animal kingdom is pro- 
tein. The skeleton is composed largely of 
deposited salts, while the elements which 
supply heat and keep up muscular activity 
are starches, fats, and sugars. 

The proteins are appropriated by man 
from plants, but they are furnished to him 
in more easily digested form in lean meat 
and eggs, the lower animals having done 
much of the work of digestion, convert- 
ing the proteins from plant life into more 
condensed form. On the other hand, by 
access to this concentrated form of easily 
digested protein, man is in danger of tak- 
ing in too much of this condensed food, if 
he eats a large quantity of meat and eggs. 

It must be apparent to every thoughtful 
person, since the nerves, muscles, and 
glands are composed largely of protein 

23 



and the skeleton largely of salt, that, in 
order to furnish the body with the ele- 
ments necessary for growth and repair, 
these elements must be provided, as 
also the substances producing the energy 
for the working body. Each individual 
should make a self-study to knoiv how 
much .re-supply is required to renew the 
daily waste. 

About one-third of the food eaten goes to 
maintain the life of the body in doing its 
incessant work of repairing and rebuilding, 
the remaining two-thirds is the reserve for 
usefulness outside of itself. 

One of the most remarkable, and the 
least understood of any of the assimilative 
and absorptive functions, is that any one 
part of the body has the power to appro- 
priate from the foods the elements 
necessary for its own rebuilding, while 
these same elements pass through other 
organs untouched. The body has the 
power, also, to not only make use of the 
foods, but to use up the blood tissue itself. 
Just how this is done is also a mystery. 

There is surely a great lesson in industry 
here, and one of the most profound studies 
in economics, physics, and chemistry. 

24 



The second use of foods, as men- 
Heat and tioned before, is to create heat and 
energy for the work of the body. 
This includes the action of the heart; the 
movement of the lungs in breathing; the 
digestion, absorption, and assimilation of 
food elements ; the tearing down and elimi- 
nation of waste ; and the muscular activity 
of body movements. 

Just as any engine requires fuel, water, 
and air to create the force necessary to run 
the machinery, so does the human engine 
require fuel, air, and water. The fuel for 
the engine consists of coal, wood, or oil. 
As these are rapidly brought in combina- 
tion with oxygen, combustion, or oxidation, 
takes place, liberating heat and setting the 
engine in motion. The amount of energy 
or force given off by an engine exactly 
equals the amount of latent energy pro- 
vided in the fuel. Much of this energy is 
commercially lost, since much of the latent 
force in fuel is not fully liberated, some, 
not liberated, going off in the smoke, while 
some may remain in the cinders. 

Just so in the body, — the amount of heat 
and energy given off from the body exactly 
equals the amount of latent energy re- 
leased by material burned during oxida- 
tion. It is estimated that about one-sixth 

25 



of the heat liberated evaporates through 
the skin, the lungs, and through the ex- 
creta, while five-sixths is required to main- 
tain the body heat. 

If the digestive forces are not working 
perfectly and if the food is not properly 
cooked, some of the food is not made per- 
fectly soluble for absorption. But in nor- 
mal conditions, if the food is supplied in 
proportion to the energy required, the heat 
and energy given off should exactly equal 
the latent heat and energy consumed in 
food. 

It is to be noted, also, that no force with- 
in the body is lost. In the very process of 
the removal of waste, heat and energy are 
created, so that the parts no longer needed 
are utilized by the system, while they are 
being removed from it. Here is a lesson 
in economy of force. 

As mentioned before, the fuel for the 
body consists of fats, starches, and sugar, 
which, in combination with oxygen, create 
force. The combination of oxygen with 
other elements in the body is known as 
oxidation. This oxidation liberates heat 
and at the same instant produces energy, 
either in muscle, gland or nerve. The 
muscular energy expresses itself in mus- 
cular motion, the glandular in chemical 

26 



action, and the nervous in nervous energy. 
The nervous energy is closely allied to 
electrical force. 

The starches come largely from cereals 
and root vegetables; the sugars largely 
from cane, from certain trees, and from 
vegetables, fruit, and milk; the fats come 
from vegetable oils, from animal fat, as 
fat, and some from milk and butter. Some 
fats are also formed from proteins. 

From the above, it follows that the fuel 
value of food depends upon the amount of 
fats, starches, and sugars contained. 

The exact process of the conversion of 
the potential energy latent in food into 
heat and energy is not known. It is partly 
released during the digestive process, as 
the elements of the food come into contact 
with the oxygen swallowed and with the di- 
gestive juices. This combustion gives to 
the digestive organs the necessary warmth 
for their effective work. Digestive juices 
will not flow freely when the body is cold. 
The heat liberated during the digestive 
process is necessary, also, to put the ele- 
ments of the food into condition for ab- 
sorption, a certain amount of heat being 
required for the chemical changes. This 
liberated energy is expressed, not alone in 
the chemical formation of the compounds, 

n 



but in the peristaltic movements of the di- 
gestive organs. 

A small portion of the heat of the body 
is gained from the sun or from artificial 
heat, but by far the greater part is gener- 
ated within the body. If one is cold, the 
quickest way to get warm is to generate 
more heat within by "turning on the 
draught", or, in other words, by breathing 
in more oxygen. So many people cover up 
the body with more clothing to reserve the 
body heat and forget to generate more heat 
by arousing the fires within. This is like 
covering up a dying fire to reserve the heat, 
instead of turning on the draught to cre- 
ate more combustion. 

Nature provides for a reserve of heat 
and energy, above the immediate needs, by 
storing up a supply which is called into use 
whenever the daily supply is inadequate. 
Many hibernating animals store up suf- 
ficient fat in summer to provide heat for 
the entire winter. This fat would not last 
the winter, however, were the animal 
active. Many individuals store up excess 
of fat sufficient to last them for months, 
even though all fat building elements be 
omitted from the diet. 

It must be remembered that anything 
which creates a greater activity of the 

28 



tissues, such as muscular exercise, liberates 
a greater amount of heat. The reverse is 
also true; — a decrease in the amount of 
muscular movement means a decrease of 
heat liberated. During exercise, a large 
amount of fat, protein, and dextrose 
(sugar) are released by the movements and 
oxidized; the liberated heat is carried to 
all parts of the system and the temperature 
is raised. Mental work, for the same rea- 
son, tends to raise the body temperature, 
though to a much less degree. Food in the 
alimentary canal causes an activity in the 
glands of the digestive organs and also 
increases the temperature. 

Of course, while digestion and mental 
and muscular activity are at their height, 
the body temperature is highest. These 
activities usually reach a maximum in the 
afternoon and the temperature is then 
highest, while, as a rule, it decreases from 
about six at night until four or five in the 
morning, when it is usually at its lowest 
ebb. This is a point of importance to phy- 
sicians. Even five degrees above the aver- 
age human temperature, if recorded about 
six at night, is not considered abnormal. 

Anything which causes an increase in 
heat radiation, as perspiration, lowers the 
temperature, and the open pores of the skin 

29 



are valuable aids in equalizing the body 
beat. A person who perspires freely does 
not suffer with heat, during excessive exer- 
cise, as does one whose pores are closed. 

One ready means of regulating the body 
heat is the bath. If one takes a hot bath, 
the temperature is materially raised by the 
artificial heat, but there is a recompense in 
the increase of heat radiation from the 
skin. If one takes a cold bath, the im- 
mediate effect is cooling, but the activity 
set up within, to create a reaction, soon 
heats the body to a greater degree than 
before the bath. The best way to increase 
the evaporation and thus decrease the tem- 
perature of the body is with a tepid shower 
or a tepid sponge. The tepid water is not 
so extreme as to create a strong reaction 
and it will cause a marked decrease in tem- 
perature. Thus, for fever patients or for 
a warm day, the tepid shower or sponge is 
commended; for a cold day, or for the in- 
dividual whose circulation is sluggish, the 
cold bath is desirable. Where the vitality 
is low, so that there is not sufficient reac- 
tion, the bath must be tempered. 

Heat generation is also increased by 
solid foods that require more than normal 
activity on the part of the glands for diges- 

30 



tion. For this reason the food for fever 
patients should be that most easily digested 
and should be reduced to the minimum to 
keep up the strength. 

Diuretic foods and beverages, which in- 
crease the activity of the skin and the kid- 
neys, also tend to lower the body tempera- 
ture. 

While the elements of the food are being 
oxidized, the latent (potential) energy re- 
leased by the oxygen creates mental and 
physical force and keeps active the meta- 
bolic changing of food into tissues and 
cells, also the changing of cells and tissues 
into waste. 

The young child's blood circulates freely, 
his breathing is unrestricted, the waste of 
the system is fully burned up, potential 
energy is released, and the result is, he 
must be active. The effort of the teacher, 
or of those having the care of children 
should be, not to restrain the child, but 
rather to direct his activity in advanta- 
geous and effective use of his energy. 

Scientists have a means of measuring the 
energy latent in food material, also the 
amount of heat given off in the oxidation of 
a given quantity of waste. The unit of 
measurement is the calorie, — the amount 
of heat which will raise one pound of water 

31 



to four degrees Fahrenheit, or will lift one 
ton one and fifty-four hundredths. 

Truly the body is a busy work-shop. 
Think of the billions upon billions of cells 
being formed and destroyed every instant 
in the liberation of heat and force ! Think, 
also, of the necessity of perfect circulation 
to bring sufficient blood to the lungs, that 
it may gather the oxygen and carry it, 
without pausing for rest, to every tissue of 
the body! Even in sleep this stream con- 
tinues incessantly. 

There is also a great lesson here in the 
law of supply and demand ; — when the body 
is at mental or muscular work, the poten- 
tial energy liberated leaves through muscle 
or brain, as energy, and is expressed _:i the 
result of the work; when the body is at 
rest, it leaves it as heat (excepting such 
part as is necessary to carry on meta- 
bolism, circulation, etc.) If much muscular 
energy is called for, a deep, full breath is 
instinctively drawn to supply the oxygen 
necessary for the added force required. 

If strong mental work is required, atten- 
tion should be given to exercise and deep 
breathing the while, that the blood may 
carry off the waste liberated by brain ac- 
tivity. The difficulty is that in doing close 
mental work, the body is too frequently 



bent over a desk in such a manner as to 
restrict the action of the Inngs; thus, the 
brain worker, in order to continue strong, 
mental work, must often go into the open 
air, — as he says, "to rest his brain", but in 
reality to re-supply the oxygen required to 
carry on his work and to carry away the 
waste liberated by brain energy. The 
supply for the body work has been called 
upon for the undue brain work, and this 
lack of oxygen has produced a state of 
body designated as "tired." Until the 
necessary oxygen has been supplied, the 
brain and body are not balanced, not 
1 ' rested. ' ' 

Nothing is lost in Nature's distribution 
of force and energy. Everything accom- 
plished in life, either in the physical hand- 
ling of material, the brain work in planning 
the constructions, the mental movements 
of thought in art, literature, or science, are 
all representatives of the heat and energy 
released from the body, and it is the effort 
of every man and woman to make the body 
yield as large an income as possible in the 
expression of this energy. In order that 
it may do so, it must be used with intelli- 
gence, just as any other great machine 
must be used intelligently; it must be fed, 
exercised, and rested judiciously. 

33 



Every part of the body is con- 
Repair and stantly changing. Its work 

ofWMte° n neVer st ° pS - If kept in thoYOVi g h 

^Metabolism) repair it must be torn down 
and rebuilt incessantly. These 
chemical changes are called collectively 
metabolism. They are divided into two 
groups: the chemical process of building 
up complex substances from simple ones is 
known as anabolism; the chemical process 
of oxidizing and breaking down the com- 
plex substances into simple ones, so that 
they are in a state to be excreted, is cata- 
bolism. While the process of oxidation in 
catabolism is going on, heat and energy are 
set free. Most of the chemical changes in 
the body are catabolic in character. This 
work of tearing down and rebuilding body 
tissues never ceases — even in sleep. 

It is not enough that the proper foods be 
furnished the body in kind and quantity. 
The essential thing is that the system be 
kept in condition to assimilate the foods to 
its needs and to promptly eliminate the 
waste. Few people assimilate all of the 
foods eaten; nearly every one eats more 
than necessary for the body needs. 

By assimilation is meant the digestive 
process by which foodstuffs are made 
soluble and diffusible, so that they can pass 

34 



into the blood ; also, the metabolic activity 
by which the food is converted into cells 
and tissues. 

Nature provides for an incomplete knowl- 
edge of the amount of re-supply necessary, 
by enabling the system to carry off a 
limited amount of surplus food above the 
bodily requirements. 

The distinct steps in anabolism are dis- 
cussed in the following chapter describing 
the work of different organs and the 
chemical changes of foods as they come in 
contact with the elements in the digestive 
juices. 



35 



CLASSIFICATION 
OF FOOD ELEMENTS 

By foodstuff is meant the chemical 
elements, appropriated by the animal for 
the use of the body, as described above. 
By foods is meant those articles of diet 
found in the market which contain the 
chemical elements used by the body in 
various combinations. Bread, for ex- 
ample, contains all of the foodstuffs and 
has been called the staff of life, because 
it sustains life. Foods may contain ele- 
ments, not foodstuffs, and not used by the 
body, but cast out as waste, while certain 
foods, such as sugar, corn-starch, olive oil, 
and egg albumen, contain only one food- 
stuff, as will be noted in the following clas- 
sification of foods and foodstuffs — 
grouped according to the body uses. 

There are many classifications but the 
following tables, as compiled by a leading 

37 



dietitian* for his practical work in classes, 
are clear and concise. 

Carbonaceous foods: 

Sugars 

Starches 

Root and tuberous vegetables 

Green vegetables 

Fruits 

Fats 

Nitrogenous foods: 

Lean meat 

Eggs 

Gluten 

Carbo-nitrogenous foods: 

Cereals 
Legumes 
Nuts 
Milk 

The above classifications are made 
because of the preponderance of certain 
elements in them, not because they do not 
contain other substances; e. g. vegetables 
are mixtures of sugars and starches; 
fruits are mixtures of sugars, vegetable 
acids, and salts; milk, legumes, cereals, 
and nuts contain a more equal division 
of sugars, fats and proteins and are there- 
fore represented as carbo-nitrogenous ; 
lean meats, with the exception of shell 

♦Winfield S. Hall, Ph. D.. If. D., Prof of Physiology, 
Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago. 

38 



fish, contain no starch, but all meats con- 
tain fat, protein, and water, and all, ex- 
cept liver, contain ash. 

In the table below, examples are given 
of foodstuffs in which the chemical 
elements are almost pure representatives 
of their classes. Cornstarch, sago, and 
tapioca are almost pure starch, containing 
very little of any other element; glucose, 
cane sugar, syrups, and honey are almost 
pure sugar; butter, lard, and olive oil are 
nearly all pure fat; egg albumen, gluten, 
and lean meat are almost pure protein. 



Foodstuffs. 



Inorgani 



•1 



Organic •* 



Water 
Salts 



Carbonaceous 
(producing 
heat & energy 



Starches 



( Corn Starch 
Sago 
Tapioca 



Sugars 



Fats 



{Glucose 
Cane Sugar 
Syrups 
Honey 

(Lard 

J Olive Oil 

( Butter 



( Egg Albumen 
Nitrogenuous— Proteins ) Gluten 
(growth and ( Lean Meat 

^repair) 



The proteins contain nitrogen, sulphur, 
and phosphates. The predominance of 
nitrogen has given the proteins the name 
nitrogenous. The carbonaceous foods 



39 



contain none of these elements, but are 
rich in carbon, hence the name carbon- 
aceous. 

As previously stated, no food contains 
but one element of foodstuffs and all ele- 
ments are formed into compounds of plant 
life from the elements in the soil, air and 
water by the action of the sun's rays. 
The rays of heat and light seem to store 
something of their power in latent heat 
and energy within the combinations of 
these compounds. The end of plant life is 
the completion of its compounds, — it first 
generates the compounds, then matures 
them, and then dies. 

All organic matter is thus formed by the 
action of the sun's rays upon inorganic 
matter. All meats are first in the form of 
plant life and are converted into other 
compounds by the chemical processes of 
the animal. This chemical action of the 
animal converts the energy latent in the 
foods into more concentrated form. The 
animal thus performs a part of the chemi- 
cal work for man. 

The classification of foods, as previously 
stated, is based upon the principal organic 
foodstuffs contained. Proteins contain 
carbon and salts, and carbonaceous foods 
contain salts and nitrogen, but these are 

40 



not in appreciable quantity. The prepon- 
derance of these elements determines the 
use of the foodstuffs in the body. It will 
be remembered that the chief uses are the 
production of heat and energy, the build- 
ing of new tissue of the growing child, and 
the repair of the waste in the child and 
the adult. 

No one element of food is more im- 
v ater portant for the needs of the body 
than water. It comprises about two-thirds 
of the body weight and is a component 
part of all foods. It is composed of 
oxygen and hydrogen. 

In order that the body may do efficient 
work in digestion and in the distribution 
of the nutrient elements of the foods, and 
that the evaporations from the body may 
be re-supplied, the water in the foods, 
together with the beverages drunk, should 
consist of about seventy-five per cent 
liquid to twenty-five per cent nutrient 
elements, or about three times as much in 
weight as proteins, fats, and carbohy- 
drates combined. If undue evaporation or 
perspiration is occasioned, a larger pro- 
portion is required. 

Water passes directly into the circula- 
tion without chemical change. It is being 

41 



constantly evaporated through the lungs 
and the skin, and every forty-five seconds 
it passes from the kidneys into the blad- 
der. 

The average individual at normal exer- 
cise, requires about seventy-one and one- 
half ounces of water daily, which equals 
about nine glasses (one glass of water 
weighs one-half pound) ; a part of this is 
consumed in the food. By reference to the 
following tables it will be noted that water 
forms a large percentage of all food, par- 
ticularly of green vegetables and fruits. 

The importance of water for children 
must not be overlooked. It is the heat 
regulator of the body, and the more en- 
ergy used, either in work or in play, which 
results in more heat and evaporation, the 
more water is required. An animal, if 
warm, immediately seeks water. 

The body will subsist for weeks upon 
the food stored about its tissues; it will 
even consume the tissues themselves, but 
it would burn itself up without water, and 
the thirst after a few days without water 
almost drives one insane. It should be 
furnished freely, in small quantities at a 
time, to fever patients. 

Few people, give much thought to its 
re-supply; yet they suffer from the loss of 

42 



it, in imperfect digestion andi assimilation, 
and with kidney and intestinal difficulties, 
ignorant of the cause. 

Water softens and dissolves the food 
and aids in its absorption; it is one chief 
agent in increasing the peristaltic action 
of both the stomach and intestines, thus 
aiding in mixing the food with the diges- 
tive juices and aiding the movement along 
the alimentary canal; it increases the flow 
of saliva and of digestive juices and aids 
these juices in reaching every particle of 
food more promptly; it aids in the distri- 
bution of food materials throughout the 
body, carrying them in the blood and the 
lymph from the digestive organs to the 
tissues, where they are assimilated; it 
forms a large part of blood and lymph. 

The theory has long been held that water 
drinking at meals is injurious, the objec- 
tion being that the food is not so thor- 
oughly masticated if washed down with 
water, and that it dilutes the digestive 
juices. But this theory is not so strongly 
held as formerly — in fact, it is now rightly 
disputed by the best authorities. 

When water drinking at meals is al- 
lowed to interfere with mastication and is 
used to wash doivn the food, the objection 
is well taken, but one rarely drinks while 

43 



food is in the mouth, the water being taken 
at rest periods between mouthfuls. Thor- 
ough mastication and a consequent free 
mixing of the food with saliva is one of 
the most essential steps in digestion, and 
the flow of gastric juice, as the flow of 
saliva, is stimulated by the water. 

If, on the other hand, the food is not 
thoroughly masticated, water is most es- 
sential to furnish that which the saliva 
would otherwise supply to soak up and dis- 
solve the food, in order that the gastric 
juice may more readilv reach all parts of 
it. 

It is singular that the use of water at 
meals has long been considered unwise 
when the free use of milk, which is about 
seven-eighths water has been recom- 
mended. 

The copious drinking of cool water from 
a half hour to an hour before a meal will 
cleanse the stomach and incite the flow of 
saliva and gastric juice. Moreover, the 
digestive cells secrete their juices more 
freely and the sucking villi absorb more 
readily when the stomach and intestines 
are moderately full, either of food or 
water, and to fill the stomach with food 
requires too much digestion. The water 

44 



passes through the stomach before the 
food. 

In building up about seven thousand 
thin women, results show that the free 
drinking of liquid at meals has a tendency 
to put on flesh. Probably one reason for 
this is because of the cleanliness and 
greater freedom given to the absorbing 
and secreting cells of the mucous lining of 
the digestive tract, as well as to the 
stronger peristalsis. 

It ivill be noted that water drinking at 
meals has many more arguments in its 
favor than against it. 

One important use to which water is put 
is to cleanse the digestive tract and the 
kidneys. This cleansing within is more 
necessary than the cleansing of the surface 
of the body. One cannot form a better 
habit than that of drinking two to three 
glasses of water upon first arising and 
then working the stomach and intestines 
by a series of exercises which alternately 
relax and contract their walls, causing a 
thorough cleansing of these org*v.?8. 

In case of gastritis, or a catai al con- 
dition of the stomach, often a pint of slimy 
mucus will collect in the stomach over 
night and the cleansing of the mucous lin- 

45 



ing of the digestive tract is then most im- 
portant. 

The drinking of warm (not too hot) or 
cold water in the morning depends upon 
the condition of the individual. If in good 
condition, two to three glasses of cold 
water, the vigorous exercises for the vital 
organs, and deep breathing of pure air, 
followed by a cold bath, will do more to 
keep the health, vigor, clear skin, and 
sparkling eye than fortunes spent upon 
seeking new climates, mineral waters, or 
tonics. There is no tonic like water, exer- 
cise, and fresh air, as above prescribed. 

Soft water, that is water containing no 
lime or other mineral matter, is best for 
cooking purposes; hard water, which 
causes any degree of curdling of soap, or 
a lime crust in the bottom of a tea 
kettle, is hard on digestion. Bacterial 
germs are killed and much of the mineral 
matter deposited by boiling the water. For 
drinking purposes it should be aerated 
that it may regain its original, fresh taste, 
otherwise boiled water tastes flat or in- 
sipid. It may be aerated by filling a jar 
half full of water, leaving the other half 
for air, and then shaking the water in the 
jar so that the air passes through it. 

46 



Salt 



Many claim that one's thirst, as in the 
desire for food, is the only safe guide, as 
to the amount and time of drinking, but 
these desires are largely matters of habit, 
and tastes are often perverted. Unless 
the condition is abnormal or the mind be- 
comes so intensely active that one fails to 
listen to the call of nature, the system calls 
for what it has been in the habit of receiv- 
ing and at the stated times it has been in 
the habit of receiving it. The safe method 
is to form the habit of eating and drinking 
a stipulated amount at regular periods and 
not allowing this regular habit to be 
broken, unless, for some cause, the system 
be out of order, and then the habit should 
only be broken for a time. 

Milk furnishes salt in proper propor- 
tion for the baby, and later, when the 
child is through nursing, eggs should 
be added to the diet of cow's milk. It 
is especially essential that growing chil- 
dren be furnished milk and eggs that they 
may be assured of the proper proportion 
and quantity of calcium salts, as these form 
the substances of bones and teeth, which 
constitute about one-sixth of the body 
weight. 

47 



All vegetables, fruits, cereals, legumes, 
and nuts furnish both calcium salts and 
sodium, potassium, and magnesium, which 
are the salts used in the blood and lymph. 
Minerals are abundant in dried legumes, 
(beans and peas). A diet consisting 
largely of vegetables needs the addition 
of sodium chlorid (common table salt) to 
supply sufficient salts for foods; likewise 
more salt than is contained in grass and 
fodder is needed for animals, particularly 
for those producing milk. The scientific 
farmer salts his cattle regularly, while 
wild animals travel miles and form beaten 
paths to springs containing salt. 

In rectal feeding, it is known that food 
absorbs more readily through the large 
intestine if salted. It is probable that salt, 
in normal proportions, also aids absorp- 
tion in the stomach and small intestine. 

Salt should not, however, be used im- 
moderately. 

The minerals of the food, or of the body, 
form the ashes in burning. 

Iron is an inorganic substance and is 
ron necessary in making red blood cor- 
puscles. 

If, by some disturbance in the digestion, 
absorption, or assimilation of food, more 

48 



iron is excreted from the body than is 
made use of from the food, the blood mak 
ing organs do not receive sufficient iron 
and the blood is lacking in red corpuscles. 
It becomes poor in hemogloblin and the 
individual becomes pale. This condition is 
known as Anaemia. 

Where there are not sufficient red blood 
corpuscles, it is of vital importance that 
one keep up a good circulation; the stom- 
ach, intestines, liver, and spleen must be 
strengthened through exercise and one 
must breathe deeply of pure air, for the 
red blood corpuscles are oxygen carriers, 
and the insufficient supply must do double 
duty or the waste of the system will not 
be oxidized and eliminated. 

A diet rich in iron must be supplied. 
It will most often be found that one whose 
blood is lacking in hemoglobin and in the 
proper proportion of red blood corpuscles, 
has had a dislike for the foods rich in iron, 
or, perhaps, has not been able to get the 
right kind of food. 

The yolks of eggs, the red meats (such 
as steak, mutton or the breast of wild 
game), and the deep colored greens, (such 
as spinach, chard, dandelions, etc.) con- 
tain a goodly proportion of iron. The 
dark color of greens and of the dark meats 

49 



is given to them by the iron which they 
contain. The dark leaves of lettuce, cel- 
ery, and cabbage contain iron, but these 
vegetables are apt to be bleached before 
being put upon the market. 

The yolks of two eggs are better than 
one whole egg, as the iron is in the yolk. 
A good way to take the yolk of eggs is in 
egg lemonade or in egg-nog, with a little 
nutmeg for spice. 



Carbonaceous Foodstuffs 

The carbonaceous foods are those used 
by the body for heat and energy and are 
so named because they contain a large pro- 
portion of carbon, — heat producing ele- 
ment. It is the carbon in wood, which, 
uniting with oxygen, produces heat and 
light. 

The carbonaceous foods are all com- 
posed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, 
the difference being in the different pro- 
portions in which these elements are com- 
bined. 

They are divided into two classes, Fats 
and Carbohydrates. The carbohydrates 

50 



embrace the sugars and starches and in- 
clude such substances as the starches of 
vegetables and grains (notably corn, rice, 
wheat, and the root vegetables), and the 
sugar of milk, of fruits, vegetables, and 
the sap of trees. Their chief office is to 
create energy. They are almost entirely 
absent from meat and eggs, the animal 
having converted them into fats. 
Carbohydrates are easily digested. 

Fat is the most concentrated form of 
* fuel and is readily oxidized. It is al- 

most pure carbon, hence less chemical work 
is required to convert it into fuel, but more 
oxygen is needed. A pound of fat has 
about three times as much fuel value as a 
pound of wheat flour, which consists 
largely of starch. 

Fat forms about fifteen per cent of the 
weight of the normal body, and it has about 
twice the fuel value of carbohydrates. 

Carbohydrates and fats are each com- 
posed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, 
the difference being that there is less 
oxygen in fat, hence, more oxygen from the 
air is required for combustion of fat than 
for carbohydrates. One pound of starch 
requires one and one-fifth pounds of oxy- 
gen for perfect combustion, while one 

51 



pound of suet requires three pounds of 
oxygen. For this reason the Eskimo, who 
depends largely upon the fats for body 
heat and energy, must have plenty of fresh 
air. One ounce of fat yields two and one- 
half times as much energy as an ounce of 
sugar or starch. 

If sufficient fat is not consumed, or is not 
formed from the carbohydrates (starches 
and sugars), a certain portion of the pro- 
tein of the body is converted into fat and 
used in energy. When the food supply is 
short, or much energy is called for, the 
surplus supply of carbohydrates is first 
used, and, if the carbohydrates are not 
sufficient, the proteins are used. Of the 
proteins, the gelatinoids are used first, and 
next the albuminoids, or tissue builders. If 
the demand, either in mental or physical 
energy, exceeds the daily supply for a 
length of time, the body becomes lean. 

In warm weather little fat is needed for 
fuel and nature provides fresh, green 
vegetables to replace the root vegetables of 
the winter, which, consisting largely of 
starches and sugars, are readily converted 
into heat. In cold weather, especially in 
high altitudes or latitudes, more fuel foods 
are required to keep the body warm and 
more fat is eaten in winter. 

52 



Those who store up an abundance of fat 
suffer most from a rise in temperature, be- 
cause combustion not only creates heat, 
but heat also aids combustion. 

Fats are not digested in the stomach. 
The connective tissue about the fat is di- 
gested here, and the fat is passed on into 
the small intestine, where it is acted upon 
by the carbonates and by lipase, one of the 
enzymes of the intestinal juices. These 
first change the fat into an emulsion and 
then into a form of soap and glycerine. 
In this saponified form, it is in condition 
to be absorbed into the circulation and car- 
ried out to the tissues, where it is assimi- 
lated and used in energy; a similar chem- 
ical change is produced in the convertion 
of oil into soap. 

Common examples of fats are butter, 
cream, the fat of meats and of nuts, and 
the oil of grains and seeds, — notably the 
cocoanut, olive, and, of the grains, oat- 
meal. 

The fact that more oxygen is required 
for combustion of fat than of starches and 
sugars is an important item for those who 
wish to call upon the fats stored within the 
body for daily heat and energy and thus 
reduce in weight. If sufficient starches, 
sugars, and fats are not consumed in the 

53 



food to supply the daily heat and energy 
released by exercise, the body calls upon 
the sugars and starches temporarily stored 
up and, when these have been consumed, 
upon the reserve of fat. If much fat is 
consumed in the daily food this fat in the 
blood will be oxidized before the fat stored 
about the muscular tissue. The scientific 
reduction of weight, therefore, lies in the 
regulation of the supply of starches, su- 
gars, and fats consumed, and, the oxida- 
tion of more of these substances through 
an increase in the daily exercise. Deep 
breathing of pure air should accompany 
all exercises, to supply sufficient oxygen 
for combustion, or oxidation. 

Manual laborers require more fat for 
energy than do people whose habits are 
sedentary. School children, or children 
who play hard, should have sufficient fat, 
and where fats are withheld, sugar should 
be freely supplied. 

The supply of fat stored in the body de- 
pends upon the quantity consumed with 
the food, upon the quantity used up in heat 
and energy, in muscular exercise, or in 
mental force. The quantity thus con- 
sumed depends somewhat upon the condi- 
tion of the nerves. If the nerves are weak, 
they do not properly direct digestion and 

54 



assimilation and less fat is consumed in 
the digestive and assimilative processes. 

Butter and Cream. The fat present in 
milk depends, of course, upon the quality 
of the milk. There is as much butter fat 
in a glass of fresh Jersey milk as in a glass 
of cream, which has been separated, by 
machinery, from the milk of some other 
cows. The cream from some Jersey cows 
is almost all butter. Skimmed milk con- 
tains very little fat. If milk is drunk by 
the adult, as a means of storing up more 
fat within the body, the cream should be 
stirred into it. 

The Fat of Meat should be thoroughly 
cooked and cooked with moisture. All 
meats in the process of baking or frying 
should be covered, in order to retain the 
moisture. To make fat easily digestible 
it should be well masticated. 

Bacon, if fully immersed in its own 
grease, in the process of frying, is a com- 
mon source of fat and is easily digested. 

Cod Liver Oil from the liver of the cod- 
fish, is more easily absorbed and assimi- 
lated than any other fat. The odor is not 
pleasant ana a little lemon juice, salt, bak- 
ing soda, or any substance for pungency 
and flavor, may be added to make it pala- 
table. The pure oil taken in this way is 

55 



perhaps preferable to the prepared emul- 
sions. One has the advantage, at least, of 
knowing what he is taking. 

Olive Oil is crushed from ripe olives. 
It is often used where cod liver oil is pre- 
scribed, because more palatable. Cotton 
' seed oil is often substituted or mixed with 
the cheaper grades of olive oil. It is whole- 
some, if fresh, but has not the pleasing 
flavor of the olive. 

Many take olive oil for the purpose of 
rounding out the figure with fat. If the 
system will assimilate fat, taken in quan- 
tities, the fat may be stored up, but, as a 
rule, one is underweight because of a fail- 
ure to assimilate the regular diet and the 
overloading with fat would not cause a 
better assimilation. 

Olive oil in moderation is a good food 
where much heat and energy are expended, 
but if ones occupation is sedentary, much 
fat is not required. 

Nut Oils are good, but, with the excep- 
tion of peanut butter, are not often used. 

The sugars are cane and beet sugar, 
Su £ ar maple sugar, and glucose. 

All sugars are carbohydrates, — carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen, — the oxygen and 
hydrogen being in the same proportions as 

56 



in water, (two atoms of hydrogen and one 
of oxygen), the difference is that the car- 
bon is missing from the water. 

Sngar is said to consist of about ninety- 
five per cent nutritive value. 

Glucose is made by converting the 
starch in corn into sugar. It is pure, 
wholesome, and cheap, and, for this rea- 
son, it is often used to dilute other sugars. 
It is not as sweet as other sugars, and it 
ferments more readily. Many of the syr- 
ups on the market are made from it. 

The common, granulated sugars are 
made from sugar cane or beets ; beet sugar 
is becoming more generally used. 

Brown sugar is granulated sugar in the 
early stages of refinement. 

Maple sugar is obtained by boiling down 
the sap of the maple tree. It is often 
adulterated with other sugars or with glu- 
cose, because they are cheaper. This adul- 
teration does not make it unwholesome, 
but when mixed with these it loses its dis- 
tinct, maple taste and is more mild. 

Before sugar can be used by the human 
system, it is changed into grape sugar, or 
dextrose, (another form of sugar) by a 
ferment in the small intestine called lac- 
tose. Milk sugar needs less chemical change 

57 



than other sugars and is taken almost at 
once into the circulation. 

When an excess of sugar is consumed, it 
is stored within the body as glycogen, until 
required. 

Sugar is perhaps a better food than 
starch, because less force is required for 
its digestion and it is easily assimilated, 
being more readily converted into dex- 
trose than are starches. Moreover it fur- 
nishes the needed heat and energy to or- 
ganisms that have no power to digest 
starch. Milk sugar is a part of the nat- 
ural food for the infant, because the infant 
has not developed the ferment necessary 
for starch digestion. 

Sugar may be oxidized within a few 
minutes after eating, and, for this reason, 
it is eaten by those who require to use an 
undue amount of muscular strength. It 
yields heat and energy within thirty min- 
utes after eating and, in times of great 
exertion or exhausting labor, the rapid- 
ity with which it is assimilated gives it 
advantage over starch. Used in limited 
quantities, therefore, according to the mus- 
cular or brain power exercised, sugar is 
one of the best foods for the production 
of energy. Where much sugar is eaten 
less starch is required. 

58 



It is also said to prevent fatigue, a man 
being able to do seventy-five per cent more 
muscular work with less fatigue after con- 
suming about seventeen and one-half 
ounces of sugar dissolved in pure water. 

It might be inferred from the above, that 
starches could be discarded and replaced 
by sugars, but a small quantity of sugar 
soon surfeits the appetite and if the foods 
were confined to those with a surplus of 
sugars, sufficient food would not be eaten 
for the needs of the body. This lack of 
appetite, occasioned by an excess of sugars, 
is due, partly, to the fact that the gastric 
juice is not secreted as freely when there 
is much sugar in the stomach. 

Because of the slower secretion of gas- 
tric juice and the surfeit of the appetite, 
sweetened foods are not used at the begin- 
ning of a meal, and, while a moderate 
amount of sugar is desirable, a surfeit is 
to be deplored. 

While sugar is not converted into fat, it 
is so readily oxidized and thus supplies 
heat and energy so promptly that the 
starches and fats are not called upon until 
the latent energy in the sugar is used. 
Those who wish to reduce in flesh should 
eat it sparingly that the starches and fats 
may be called upon to furnish energy, but 

59 



sugar should be as freely used as the sys- 
tem can handle it, by those who wish to 
build up in flesh. 

Broadly speaking, about one-fourth of 
a pound of sugar, daily, in connection with 
other foods, is well utilized by the system, 
the quantity depending upon whether one 
leads an active or a sedentary life. 

Candy is often made from glucose in- 
stead of molasses or cane sugar, and while 
glucose is wholesome, it undergoes fermen- 
tation readily. Much candy, unless one 
is actively exercising, tends to indigestion. 

The desire of the child for sweets is a 
natural one, because it uses so much en- 
ergy, and sugar supplies this energy with 
less effort of the digestive system. When 
the child begins to eat more solid foods, if 
sugar is used in abundance for sweetening, 
it is no longer attracted by the mild 
sweetness of fresh milk, and it is well to 
cut down the allowance of sugar, when the 
child turns against milk, in the hope of 
restoring the taste for this valuable food. 
Many of the best authorities state that 
the child, up to its third year, should never 
be allowed to taste sweets, in order that 
the appetite may not be perverted from the 
natural sweets of milk. 

60 



Sugar is better supplied the child in a 
lump or in home-made candy, rather than 
in the sweetening of porridge, oatmeal, or 
bread and milk, etc. 

Sweet fruits, fully ripened, contain much 
sugar and should be freely given to the 
child. The natural flavor of fruits and 
grains is very largely destroyed by sugar, 
which is used too freely on many articles 
of diet. 

Most vegetables and fruits contain 
sugar, — indeed sugar is the only nutriment 
in many fruits. The sweet taste in all 
fruits and vegetables is due to its presence. 
Sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, 
turnips, grapes, figs, and dates are espe- 
cially rich in sugar and when these are 
furnished with a meal, in any appreciable 
quantity, the starches should be restricted 
— notably bread, potatoes and rice. 

Harvesters, road-makers and others, 
who do hard work in the open air, can 
consume large quantities of sugar in pie, 
pastry, etc., which are difficult to digest, 
while one who lives an indoor life, should 
refrain from an undue indulgence in these. 

For one who is under-nourished, sugar is 
a desirable food, if the starch be dimin- 
ished in proportion as the amount of sugar 
is increased; but the inclination in sweet- 

61 



ening foods is to take more starch than 
the system requires, since it is the carbo- 
hydrate foods which are ordinarily sweet- 
ened, — not the proteins. 

On account of the latent heat and en- 
ergy, sugars are more desirable in cold 
weather than in warm. Nature supplies 
them more abundantly in root vegetables 
for this season. More puddings and 
heavier desserts are eaten in winter. 

Starch is one of the most impor- 
tant carbohydrates used for nutri- 
tion. It is formed by the chemical action 
produced by the sun's rays upon the cells 
of living plants, from the carbon-dioxid 
and water in the air and in the soil. 

Corn starch, sago, tapioca, and arrow- 
root are practically pure starch. Corn- 
starch is from young maturing corn: tap- 
ioca is from the meal of a tropical plant, 
cassava ; sago is from the pith of the sago 
palm; arrowroot is from a plant of the 
same name, a native of the West Indies. 
Eice is almost pure starch, while wheat 
and other cereals contain from sixty to 
seventy per cent. 

Starch lacks flavor and for this reason 
all starchy foods are seasoned. 

62 



All starches must undergo much chemi- 
cal change by action of the saliva, the in- 
testinal juice and by the liver, before they 
can be used by the body. They are first 
converted into dextrine and then into mal- 
tose (animal sugar). The digestion is 
begun by the saliva in the mouth and con- 
tinued in the stomach by the saliva swal- 
lowed with the food. If the saliva fails to 
digest all of the starch, either in the mouth 
or the stomach, it passes unchanged into 
the intestines, where it is converted by the 
amylase of the intestinal juice, first into 
dextrine and then into maltose, or sugar. 
It is absorbed into the blood as sugar. 
After the digested starch (maltose) passes 
into the blood it is spoken of as sugar. Be- 
fore it is converted into energy it is again 
changed in the liver into animal starch 
(glycogen) and stored for a time in the 
liver. When the system is ready for it, 
it is again broken down into sugar, because 
in the form of glycogen it cannot be ab- 
sorbed into the blood. 

The chemical process used in the forma- 
tion of glucose, from the starch in corn, is 
allied to the change in the liver, from 
starch into sugar. 

63 



The starches and sugars are really the 
"reserves'" or " go-betweens' ' of the body, 
being stored until needed. 

If starches are consumed in unduly large 
quantities, without sufficient exercise to 
burn them up, they overload the liver and 
clog the system. 

Starchy foods should not be given to 
children before the starch converting fer- 
ments are formed, nor to one in disease 
where these ferments are interrupted. 



Nitrogenous Foodstuffs 
or Proteins 

The proteins form heat and energy when 
the supply of sugars, starches, and fat 
are exhausted, but proteins, alone form 
muscle, bone and sinew. They are, in this 
sense, the most important of foods, — they 
are, also, the most costly. 

The foods most rich in proteins are meat 
and eggs. These have undergone chemi- 
cal changes from the vegetable kingdom 
being built up into more complex com- 
pounds in the animal kingdom, 

64 



Meat and eggs are the tissue builders. 
In this connection it may be well to state 
that blood is tissue; thus meat and eggs 
build the blood, as well as muscle and 
sinew. 

Nitrogenous foods, or proteins, are so 
called because of the large proportion of 
nitrogen which they contain. All nitrog- 
enous foods contain considerable carbon 
— mostly in the form of fat in the meat 
elements — but the carbonaceous foods con- 
tain so little of the proteins that they do 
not appreciably enter into the nutrition, — 
the carbon and nitrogen in the carbo-ni- 
trogenous foods are more equally divided. 

The nitrogenous or protein elements in 
the body constitute about one-fifth of its 
weight. They make the framework, form- 
ing the basis of blood, lymph, muscle, 
sinew, bone, skin, cartilage, and other 
tissues. 

Worn out body tissues is constantly 
being torn down and eliminated and the 
protein in the foods must daily furnish 
material for repair, as well as for building 
new tissue in the growing child. 

A young animal's first need is for 
growth, not having learned to exercise suf- 
ficiently to use much energy, and the first 
food given is an animal product — milk to 

65 



babes and other mammals, while the young 
of other animals are first fed upon eggs. 

The nitrogenous foods are required in 
smaller bulk than vegetables and fruits; 
they are more concentrated and contain 
less waste. According to recent experi- 
ments, the average adult requires from two 
to four ounces a day of nitrogenous foods, 
to repair the waste, according to the pro- 
portion of nitrogen contained. Happily, 
where more is consumed, the system has 
the power, up to a certain limit (depending 
upon the physical condition and the daily 
activity), to eliminate an excess. It is 
needless to say that if the daily waste is 
not resupplied, the digestion and bodily 
nutrition suffer. The system must have 
the two to four ounces to supply the nitro- 
gen daily excreted, or the tissues them- 
selves will be consumed. 

The proteins, of which meat is the prin- 
cipal one, are classified as 

Albuminoids: — albumin (white of eggs), 
casein (curd of milk), myosin (the basis 
of lean meat and gluten of wheat), 

Gelatinoids, (connective tissue of meat), 

Extractives (appetizing and flavoring 
elements). 



66 



DIGESTION 

Any discussion in regard to the diges- 
tibility of foods must be general, because 
food which agrees with one may disagree 
with another, and a food which disagrees 
with one at a particular time may entirely 
agree with him at some other time ; there- 
fore, before one passes upon the adaptabil- 
ity of a food to the individual, it should be 
known that this food agrees or disagrees 
with him under varying conditions. 

The digestibility of food depends largely 
upon the physical condition of the 
individual, because the amount of digestive 
juices poured into the alimentary canal is 
influenced by this condition, particularly 
by the condition of the nerves. If sufficient 
juices, in proper proportions, are not 
poured into the digestive tract, the food- 
stuffs are not made soluble for absorption 
into the blood. Digestion is practically 
synonymous with solution, — all solid foods 
must be reduced to a liquid state, through 

67 



digestive juices and water, before they can 
pass through the walls of the stomach and 
intestines. 

Each individual should learn to like the 
foods containing the nutrient elements 
which experience and blood tests have 
shown to be lacking in his case. The ques- 
tion of likes and of dislikes in regard to 
foods, is largely habit, and one can learn 
to like almost any food one wishes. 

Where one forms the habit of discrim- 
inating too much in the food, or discarding 
this food or that, because at some time it 
has disagreed, due to the particular con- 
dition at the time, the mind approaches the 
table as a more or less pessimistic censor 
and the saliva and the gastric juices are 
retarded in their flow. 

When one is exercising freely, so that the 
muscular and mucous coats of the digestive 
system are strong, the body will handle 
foods which, during sedentary habits, it 
would not digest. There are kinds of 
foods, however, which, to certain individ- 
uals, according to the chemical composition 
of the body, act as actual poisons, e. g., 
strawberries, cheese, or coffee. 

It may be well to here trace, briefly, the 
progress of the food through the digestive 

68 



tract and fhe action of the juices and the 
ferments upon it.* 

Salivary The food in the mouth is mixed with 
Digestion saliva, which dissolves the starches, 
converting them into sugar. The starches 
are the only foods whose chemical diges- 
tion is begun in the mouth. They are 
first broken up into dextrin and then into 
the more simple sugar, known as animal 
starch, or maltose. Hereafter, in speaking 
of sugar, after it has been absorbed into 
the blood, the reader will bear in mind that 
the term refers not only to digested sugar, 
consumed as such, but also to digested 
starches (maltose), as shown on page 63. 
It is important that sufficient saliva be 
mixed with the food, through mastication, 
that it may enter the stomach and there 
continue the chemical process of digestion 
of starch. If starches are not thoroughly 
masticated, sufficient saliva will not enter 
the stomach to convert the starch into 
sugar; the food will pass into the small 
intestine, which must then do more than 
its normal work of digestion. 

* A knowledge of the mucous lining of the stomach and 
intestines, and of the tributary glands, such as the liver and 
pancreas, is important to a thorough understanding of diges- 
tion, and the reader is referred to "The Vital Organs: Their 
Use and Abuse" of this series. This takes up the study of the 
secretion of digestive juices, the conditions favoring normal 
secretions, etc. 

69 



The saliva consists of about ninety-nine 
and one-half per cent water and one-half 
per cent solids. The solids consist of 
ptyalin, sodium chlorid, sodium carbonate 
(baking soda), mucus, and epithelium. 
Ptyalin, the most important of these, is an 
active digestive agent; the mucus lubri- 
cates the masticated food ; the sodium car- 
bonate insures the alkalinity of the food; 
the salt is present in all secretions ; and the 
water dissolves the food that the juices 
may more readily reach and act upon each 
particle. 

The saliva flows into the mouth, more or 
less, at all times, but more copiously during 
mastication. Its evident purpose, when 
food is not present, is to keep the lining of 
the mouth moist. 

The flow of saliva is controlled, to a 
great degree, by nerves which have their 
centers in the medulla oblongata. The 
sight of food, pleasingly served, or even 
the thought of food which one likes, will in- 
crease the salivary flow. This is one in- 
stance of the control of thought materially 
affecting digestion, and the importance of 
forming the habit of cultivating a taste for 
all kinds of .food, is apparent. The 
stronger the relish for the food, and the 
more thoroughly it is masticated, and 

70 



mixed with the saliva, the more perfect will 
be the first step in digestion. This first 
step of thorough mastication is all im- 
portant, not only because the chemical 
action upon the starch molecules is 
facilitated by the thorough softening and 
mixing with the saliva, but thorough mas- 
tication also tends to prevent over-eating. 
Water encourages the flow of saliva and 
for this reason should be drunk copiously 
before meals, particularly where digestion 
is weak. It may also be taken at rest 
periods during the meal. (See page 44). 

Stomach As the food enters the stomach, the 
Digestion gastric juice pours out from the 
mucous lining, very much as the saliva 
pours into the mouth. It consists of 
ninety-nine and one-half per cent water 
and one-half per cent solids, as does the 
saliva. The solids of the gastric juice are 
composed of pepsin, rennin, hydrochloric 
acid, and mucus. The mucus serves to 
lubricate the food as in the saliva. It also 
prevents the digestion of the mucous lining 
of the stomach itself. 

The hydrochloric acid and the pepsin 
cause the principal chemical changes in the 
food while in the stomach, acting alone 
upon the proteins. The only digestion of 

71 



starches in the stomach is that continued 
by the saliva. The salivary digestion pro- 
ceeds until the gastric juice is secreted 
in sufficient quantity to cause a marked 
acidity of the stomach contents, when the 
starches are passed into the intestines. 

Gastric juice begins to flow into the 
stomach soon after eating, but it is not 
secreted in sufficient quantity to supersede 
salivary digestion for from twenty to 
forty-five minutes. 

The result of gastric digestion of pro- 
teins is their conversion, first, into albu- 
min, then into proteosis and, lastly, into 
peptone, which is protein in a more simple, 
soluble, and diffusible form. In the form 
of peptone, the proteins are in condition to 
be absorbed. 

If the food has been properly cooked and 
masticated the gastric digestion will be 
completed in one and one-half to three 
hours.. If not properly cooked and masti- 
cated, the stomach digestion may con- 
tinue one to two hours longer. It should, 
however, be completed in three hours. 

The most readily digested animal foods 
remain less time in the stomach. Meat, 
as a rule, is easily digested, because 
the action of the digestive juices of the 
animal has converted the starches and 

72 



sugars. The white meat of chicken, being 
soft, is digested in a shorter time than the 
red or the dark meat. 

Fluids leave the stomach more rapidly 
than solids. Seven ounces of water leave 
the stomach in one and one-half hours, 
seven ounces of boiled milk in about two 
hours. 

The flow of gastric juice, as the flow of 
saliva, is governed by the nerves; — the 
sight, taste, and smell of food, and the 
attitude of mind toward it, to a certain 
extent, regulates its flow. 

After the food has extensively accum- 
ulated, during the progress of a meal, the 
stomach begins a series of wave-like move- 
ments called peristaltic waves.* These 
waves work downward through the length 
of the stomach towards its lower opening, 
known as the pyloric orifice. As the food is 
moved down the stomach by these motions, 
it is thoroughly mixed with the gastric 
juice. 

During the early stages of digestion, 
the sphincter muscles of the pylorus keep 
the lower end of the stomach closed, 
but, as digestion progresses, the pylorus 
gradually relaxes to let the digested, 

* See "The Vital Organs'; Their Use and Abuse" by Susanna 
Cocroft. 

73 



soluble portion of the food pass into the 
intestine. If the food still remains in a 
solid form, by reason of being improperly 
cooked or poorly masticated, as it touches 
the pylorus, these sphincter muscles, al- 
most as if they were endowed with reason- 
ing faculties, close, forcing the undigested 
mass back to be further acted upon by the 
gastric juice, — the solid mass is not 
allowed to pass until dissolved. 

If the individual continues to abuse the 
stomach and to cause it to work overtime, 
it becomes exhausted and demands rest ; it 
refuses to discharge the gastric juice in 
proper proportion; the peristaltic move- 
ments are weak ; and food is not promptly 
or forcefully moved along the stomach and 
mixed with the gastric juice. This de- 
mand for a rest is termed Indigestion. 

To sum up, — digested sugar is dextrose ; 
digested starch is first dextrin, then mal- 
tose (animal, sugar) ; digested protein is 
peptone; and, digested fat is saponified 
fat. 

Intestinal The food passes from the stomach, 

Digestion through the pylorus into the small 

intestine. The first twelve inches of the 

small intestine is known as the duodenum. 

In the duodenum it is acted upon by 

74 



the pancreatic juice from the pancreas, the 
bile from the liver, and the intestinal juices. 
These juices act upon proteins, fats, and 
carbohydrates. The bile acts upon the fats, 
while the pancreatic and intestinal juices 
act chiefly upon the carbohydrates. 

As the food enters the intestine, it is 
changed, by the sodium carbonate, from 
the acid condition produced in the stomach, 
to alkaline reaction. 

The bile exercises an important influence 
upon digestion, any disturbance in the flow 
of this greenish-brown secretion being very 
quickly shown both in stomach and in- 
testinal digestion. It emulsonizes and 
saponifies the fats, it aids in their absorp- 
tion, and it lubricates the intestinal mass, 
facilitating its passage through the entire 
length of the intestines. Thus, it is a very 
potent agent in regulating the bowel move- 
ments. A diminution in the flow of bile 
quickly expresses itself in constipation. 

Fats are almost entirely digested in the 
small intestine. The presence of fat stim- 
ulates the flow of pancreatic juice, which, 
in turn, stimulates the flow of bile from 
the liver. For this reason, if the liver is 
sluggish, fatty foods are desirable. Olive 
oil is prescribed for gall stones to stimu- 
late the action of the bile ducts. 

75 



Before the fat molecules can be absorbed, 
they must first be broken up into glycerin 
and fatty acids and further changed to a 
fine emulsion, which gives the contents of 
the small intestine a milky appearance. 
After they are broken up into these fatty 
acids and thus brought to the finest state 
of emulsion, they are readily saponified, 
being then soluble in water and in a state 
to be absorbed by the walls of the intes- 
tines. The fats are absorbed almost en- 
tirely in the small intestine, — mostly in 
the duodenum. 

As a rule, the starches, or dextrin, will 
not be fully digested by the saliva and 
those which have failed of salivary diges- 
tion are acted upon by amylase (one of the 
solids of the intestinal juice) and changed 
to maltose, while the trypsin from the pan- 
creas, together with the intestinal juice, 
acts upon any protein which has failed to 
be fully digested in the stomach, changing 
it into peptone. In the form or peptone it 
is absorbed through the "sucking" villi of 
the intestinal walls. 

The food is forced along the intestinal 
tract by peristaltic or muscular relaxation 
and contraction waves, as in the stomach. 
As it is so forced, the nutrient elements, 
after being put into condition for absorp- 

76 



k/ 



tion, are taken up through the villi of the 
intestinal walls by the portal veins and the 
lacteals of the sub-mucous lining. (See 
page 78). 

It is now believed that a larger pro- 
portion of food is digested and absorbed 
than was heretofore realized, and that the 
excretions from the intestines are, in 
many cases, made up almost entirely of re- 
fuse, and of the catabolic waste of the 
system. In an ordinary, mixed diet, it is 
stated that about ninety-two per cent of the 
proteins, ninety-five per cent of the fats, 
and ninety-seven per cent of the carbohyd- 
rates are retained by the body. 

In digestion, it is of the utmost impor- 
tance that the muscular, mucous, and the 
sub-mucous coats, and the secreting glands 
of the stomach and intestines be kept 
thoroughly strong and active, that the 
digestive juices may be freely poured out, 
the nutriment be freely absorbed, and the 
food be moved along the digestive tract. 
The strength of any organ is gained 
through the nutriment in the blood; there- 
fore, daily exercise, which calls the blood 
freely to these organs, is imperative. 

77 



The greater part of the food is 
.sorption absorbed through the intestines, yet 
some proteins, which have been fully 
digested by the gastric juice, and certain 
fats, particularly the fats in milk, which 
are in a natural state of emulsion, may be 
absorbed through the walls of the stomach. 
However, the absorption through the stom- 
ach is small compared to that through the 
intestines. 

The small intestine is particularly fitted 
for absorption. Every inch or so along its 
course the mucous lining is thrown up into 
folds, as if to catch the food as it passes 
toward the large intestine, and to hold it 
there until the villi have the opportunity 
to absorb it. These transverse folds of the 
intestinal walls are called valvulae con- 
niventes. The villi are fingerlike pro- 
jections of the mucous lining of the 
intestines, which stand out upon the lin- 
ing somewhat as the nap on plush. They 
have been called "sucking" villi, because 
during the movements of the intestines 
they seem to suck in the liquid food. As 
soon as the foodstuffs, — proteins, carbo- 
hydrates, and fats, are put in a dissoluble 
state ready for absorption, they are very 
promptly absorbed by the villi. If, for 

78 



any reason, they remain unabsorbed, they 
are liable to ferment by the action of the 
trypsin, or to be attacked by the bacteria 
always present in the intestines. 

The peptones, sugars, and saponified 
fats are rapidly absorbed, while the un- 
digested portion, together with the un- 
absorbed water, the bile, mucus and 
bacterial products, are passed through the 
ileo-cecal valve into the large intestine. 

That the large intestine is also adapted 
to the absorption of fats is shown by 
clinical experiments with patients who can- 
not retain food in the stomach, the food in 
such cases being given through rectal in- 
jections. 

In the large intestine, the mass passes up 
the ascending colon, across the transverse 
colon, and down the descending colon, 
losing, by absorption, foodstuffs not ab- 
sorbed in the stomach and small intestine. 

While water and salt are absorbed both 
in the stomach and in the small intestine, 
the evident purpose in leaving the larger 
part of the water to be absorbed in the 
large intestine is that it may assist the 
intestinal contents in passing along. The 
water also stimulates the peristaltic move- 
ment. 

79 



As the food is absorbed through the 
walls of the alimentary canal, it is picked 
up by the rootlets of the mesenteric veins* 
and by the lymph channels, — the latter, 
through the abdominal cavity, are called 
lacteals. Nearly all of the fats are ab- 
sorbed through the lacteals. The whitish 
color given to the contents of the lacteals, 
by the saponified fats, gives rise to the 
term lacteal, meaning "whitish." 

Nearly all of the proteins and sngars 
pass through the mesenteric veins and 
the portal veins into the liver. Here the 
sugars are at once attacked by the liver 
cells and built up into glycogen as de- 
scribed on page 81 and the proteins are 
passed through the liver into the arterial 
blood stream. A small portion of the pro- 
teins, however, do not go to the liver, but 
are passed directly into the lymphatics and 
thus into the blood stream, where they are 
again carried to the liver. 

To sum up,— the larger part of the ab- 
sorption of sugars, starches, proteins, and 
fats is through the small intestine, though 
some are absorbed in the stomach and a 
very little through the large intestine; 
while some water and salts are absorbed 



* For illustration see the frontispiece of "The Circulation, 
Lungs, Heart," of this series. 

80 



in the stomach and small intestine, these 
are largely absorbed in the large intestine. 



The Work of Various Organs 
Affecting Digestion 

The purpose of this chapter is to show 
the work of other organs than the diges- 
tive organs in converting the digested 
food to use in the body, in tearing down 
waste, and in eliminating waste and an ex- 
cess of material above the body needs. 

The liver is commonly called the 

, °l . of chemical work-shop of the body. The 

the Liver . -. . -. 

proteins and sugars are carried 

through the blood (portal veins) to the 
liver directly they are absorbed from the 
alimentary canal. As the food materials 
filter through the blood capillaries, between 
the liver cells, several substances are ab- 
sorbed, particularly sugar, which is here 
changed into animal starch called glycogen. 
It is held in the liver for a few hours in the 
form of glycogen and then redigested by 
the action of an amylolitic ferment and 

81 



again gradually given out into the blood in 
the form of sugar; hence sugar is subject 
first to the anabolic change of being built 
up into glycogen, and then to the catabolic 
change of oxidation and breaking down. 

While the conversion of the sugar is 
one chief office of the liver, it also acts 
upon the proteins, — not as they are first 
passed through the liver in the blood, but 
as they are returned to the liver from the 
muscle tissue, partly oxidized and broken 
up into simpler products. The liver cells 
absorb and further oxidize and combine 
them into nitrogenous waste, which the 
kidneys throw off in urea. 

The liver and the spleen also break up 
the pigment or coloring matter of the red 
blood corpuscles. As they become worn 
out, they are retired in the liver and the 
spleen from the circulation. The iron is 
retained by the liver cells and the re- 
mainder is thrown off from the liver, in 
the bile. 

The liver is often called the watch dog of 
the body, because it is on guard for all 
poisons which pass through it in the blood. 
The large part of these toxic substances are 
absorbed through the alimentary canal 
with other foodstuffs. Many of them are 
the result of the fermentation of foods 

82 



which are not digested as promptly as they 
should be, on account of an insufficient 
secretion of digestive juices, or a failure to 
secrete them in normal proportions, or due 
to inactivity of the stomach and intestines. 

It surely is a wise provision of nature to 
supply a guard to oxidize, or break down 
these poisons and make them harmless, so 
that they do not pass to all parts of the 
body as poisons, thus affecting the nerves 
and the blood stream, and, through these, 
the entire system. 

The necessity of correct habits of deep 
breathing will be readily seen, because 
oxygen is required to break down the 
poisons as well as to oxidize the waste of 
the system. 

One example of the action of the liver 
in rendering substances harmless, is its 
oxidation of alcohol. From one to three 
ounces of alcohol a day are oxidized and 
made harmless in the liver, varying ac- 
cording to the individual and to the con- 
dition, at different times, in the same per- 
son. If the limit of one to three ounces is 
exceeded, the excess is not oxidized and in- 
toxication results. These evidences of in- 
toxication are in the nature of narcosis; 
alcohol is now regarded as a narcotic along 
with ether and chloroform. 

83 



It was formerly held by physiologists 
that alcohol was a food, because its oxida- 
tion liberates body heat and it was assumed 
that this liberation of heat, was the same 
as that freed by the combustion of fats, 
starches, and sugar uniting with oxygen. 
More recent knowledge, however, has un- 
questionably determined that heat, result- 
ing from oxidation of alcohol, does not 
keep up body temperature ; the pores of the 
skin are opened and there is a greater 
loss of heat through the skin. This really 
makes the system less able to resist cold. 
Large doses of alcohol actually cause a 
fall in body temperature and every force of 
the body is decreased in efficiency, while if 
alcohol were an actual food the efficiency 
would be increased. We are forced to the 
conclusion, therefore, that alcohol is a 
pseudo-food as it is a pseudo-stimulant. 

The muscles play an important 
Work of the part in the use of f oodK Most of 

Muse es ^ e k ea ^. ^ s g enera ted in them, by 

the sugar and fats coming in contact with 
the oxygen in the blood. This heat is liber- 
ated during every moment of the twenty- 
four hours, asleep or awake. Of course, 
more is liberated during exercise, since the 
movement of the muscles sets all tissues 

84 



into activity and the blood circulates more 
strongly, bringing a greater supply of 
oxygen to them. It is always well during 
active exercise to stop frequently and fully 
inflate the lungs. The effort should 
always be made to breathe fully and 
deeply — otherwise the pressure of the 
liberated carbon dioxid will cause a pres- 
sure throughout the blood stream, par- 
ticularly about the heart and in the head. 
This pressure is relieved when the excess 
of carbonic acid gas liberated has been 
thrown off by the lungs. Nature makes 
the effort to throw off the excess of car- 
bonic acid gas by forcing one to breath 
more rapidly while running or taking un- 
usual exercise. 

The oxidation changes are simply a 
combustion of sugars and fats, liberating 
latent heat as they are brought into 
contact with the oxygen. Exercise and a 
regulation of the amount of carbohydrates 
and fats consumed in the foods jis the 
natural, scientific method for the reduction 
of an excess of fat. 

A certain amount of protein is con- 
stantly oxidized in the muscles, also, being 
broken down into carbon dioxid, water and 
a number of nitrogenous mid-products. 

85 



The carbonic acid gas and water are 
thrown off by the lungs and the partially 
oxidized, nitrogenous waste is carried to 
the liver, where it is further oxidized and 
prepared for excretion, through the kid- 
neys, lungs, skin and intestines. 

When sugar is carried to the muscles in 
larger quantities than can be utilized by 
them, it is often built up into animal 
starch and stored in the form of glycogen, 
similar to its chemical change and storage 
in the liver. 

This storage of glycogen in the muscles 
and in the liver is a wise provision of Na- 
ture. It is a reserve to be called upon 
whenever the expenditure of heat and 
energy exceeds the amount supplied in any 
day's rations. 

The nerves oxidize food materials, 
Work of the but not to t extent ex _ 

Nerves ,. -. . ° ' ., 

ceptmg during nervous activity. 

During periods of rest, food materials are 

stored in the nerve cells in grandular form. 

They represent concentrated nerve foods 

and are the result of anabolic processes. 

During nervous activity they are oxidized 

and carried away through the blood and 

the lymph. This oxidation of the food, 

86 



stored in the nerves, creates nervous 
energy and heat. 

The energy liberated by the nerves re- 
sembles electrical energy. 

Where one subjects himself continu- 
ously to an excess of nervous activity, all 
reserve food material, stored in the nerve 
cells, is used and the result is a trying 
nerve tension. Such individuals need 
plenty of easily digested food. 

The lungs absorb oxygen and 
Work of the eliminate carbon dioxid. They 
s occasionally throw off a very 

little organic material. 

The carbon dioxid is carried to the 
lungs from the tissues through the venous 
stream and diffused through the capillary 
walls of the lungs. The oxygen is ab- 
sorbed into the capillaries through the thin 
air sacs in the walls of the lungs. 

The kidneys do not absorb as do 
Work of the ^ e i un g S? neither do they perform 

any anabolic work as does the 
liver, nor catabolic work as the muscles, 
nerves and the liver. They simply throw 
off waste matter. 

The blood passes through them in a 
transverse branch from the abdominal 

87 



aorta. In its circuit urea, uric acid, 
urates, sulphuric acid, sulphates and 
sodium phosphates pass from the blood 
with the water and are thrown from the 
system; hence the kidneys are purifying 
organs, as are the lungs. The blood 
returning from the kidneys through the 
veins is pure, just as the blood in the 
pulmonary vein is pure, while that in the 
arteries to the kidneys and the lungs is 
impure. 

The above substances cannot be thrown 
off from the lungs. They are the pro- 
ducts of oxidation of proteins, partly of 
the living tissues and partly those broken 
down direct as they are supplied in the 
foods, in excess of the needs of the system. 

Interference in the action of the kidneys 
results in a hoarding of these substances 
in the blood, and may produce an 
intoxicated condition known as uremic 
poisoning. 

Water in abundance and diuretic fruits 
and vegetables, which increase the activity 
of the kidneys, should be taken where 
uremia is indicated. (Foods which cause 
a free flow of urine are called diuretic 
foods.) 

88 



The sweat glands also throw off an 
Work of the excegs of water and saltg# The 

kidneys and the skin are interde- 
pendent; if the kidneys are inactive the 
skin throws off a larger quantity and if the 
skin is inactive, or if for any reason the 
pores of the skin are closed, the kidneys 
are more active. This is evidenced by the 
sudden immersion of the body in cold 
water; the pores of the skin being closed 
the kidneys immediately act. 

During the summer, or at any time when 
the skin throws off more water than usual, 
the kidneys are less active and the urine, 
being more concentrated, is darker. 

The skin also throws off carbon dioxid 
and, to a slight extent, it absorbs oxygen. 

The intestines, in their work of 
Work of the elimination, pass off all undigested 

matter. They also carry off bile 
pigment, bile salts, mucus, animo acids, 
and other decomposition of proteins, — also 
a little unabsorbed fats and bacterial de- 
composition taking place in the intestines. 
Coarse articles of food containing fibres 
which do not digest, such as the bran of 
grains and the coarser fruits and vegeta- 
bles (though much of their substances are 
not food in the strictest sense) are valu- 

89 



able to increase the peristaltic movements 
of the intestines and to act as a carrying 
body to move the waste excretions along 
their course. 

The combustion, or burning of fuel in 
any form, (oxidation for the release of 
latent heat and energy) always leaves 
some parts which are not used as heat or 
energy, and it is the work of the intestines 
to eliminate much of this refuse. When 
coal is burned, gas, smoke and cinders or 
clinkers, constitute the waste and if these 
were not allowed to escape from a stove 
the fire would soon go out — the smoke and 
gas would smother it and the clinkers 
would prevent the circulation of oxygen 
and soon clog and fill the stove. The same 
is true in the body — the carbonic acid gas 
not being allowed to pass off would soon 
put out the fires of life; it would poison 
the body and stunt the action of the 
nerves. If the nitrogenous waste (like 
ashes and cinders) is not eliminated by the 
kidneys, one will die in convulsions in one 
or two days. 

The absolute necessity of a free elim- 
ination of waste will be readily seen. — If 
the engine is to do its best work, the 
engineer sees that it is kept perfectly 
clean — otherwise it becomes clogged, does 

90 



inefficient work and the clogging soon 
wears out some parts. The same is true 
in the body, — clogging in any part over- 
works and wears out other parts depend- 
ent upon the work of the one. 



Summary 

Let us sum up the processes which the 
food undergoes in its conversion into con- 
dition to be absorbed by the body; in its 
absorption through the walls of the 
intestines and stomach; and the metabolic 
processes which it undergoes in being 
converted into heat and energy; and again 
broken down and eliminated as waste. 

The Saliva begins the digestion of 
starches and sugars in the mouth. This 
digestion is continued by the saliva in the 
stomach. 

The Stomach, when in normal condition, 
thoroughly digests the proteins. If any 
proteins fail of digestion in the stomach 
the process is completed in the intestines. 

The Intestines, aside from their work of 
digestion and absorption, excrete bile pig- 
ment, bile salts, animal acids, mucus and 

91 



other decomposition of proteins, with, 
bacterial fermentation and putrefactions; 
also such food materials as are not 
digested. 

The small intestine digests and absorbs 
the fats and continues the digestion of 
starches, sugars and fats when this diges- 
tion is not completed in the stomach. 

The large part of the food is absorbed 
through the small intestine, though a small 
part is absorbed through the walls of the 
stomach and through the large intestine. 

Fats are almost entirely absorbed in 
the small intestine. They are absorbed 
through the lacteals and are carried into 
the blood stream. 

The Liver. The proteins and the 
starches (converted into maltose) and 
sugars pass into the liver. The sugar (in- 
cluding the sugar in vegetables, milk, fruits 
and that used for sweetening, as well 
as the carbohydrates which have been 
changed into maltose, is converted into 
glycogen in the liver, stored here for a 
time and again broken down into sugar 
that it may be in condition to be absorbed 
into the blood. 

The proteins pass through the liver but 
are not acted upon by this organ until 
they again return to the liver through the 

92 



blood stream, after they have been partly 
oxidized in the tissues. The liver further 
oxidizes them putting them into condition 
to be excreted by the kidneys and intes- 
tines. 

The liver also breaks up the worn out 
red corpuscles, putting them into condi- 
tion to be eliminated in the bile. 

It oxidizes and renders harmless poison- 
ous substances absorbed in the food, such 
as fermented food products and alcohol. 

The Muscles oxidize the fats and sugars 
liberating the latent heat and energy. 

They partly oxidize proteins which are 
further broken up in the liver. 

The Nerves oxidize food materials 
stored in the nerve cells, providing nerv- 
ous energy. 

The Lungs absorb oxygen and throw off 
carbon dioxid, watery vapor and some 
organic substances. 

The Kidneys and The Skin purify the 
blood by excreting water, carbon dioxid 
and nitrogenous waste. 



93 



FACTORS INFLUENCING 
DIGESTION 

As before stated, it is not the food eaten, 
but that which the body digests and 
assimilates, or appropriates to its needs, 
which counts ; many factors influence such 
nourishment. The principal ones are the 
forceful circulation, the breathing of 
plenty of oxygen, and the resultant free 
elimination of waste. 

If one has no appetite, by far the 
The Appetite gafest method is to a b s tain from 

food until the system calls for it, or to eat 
but a very little of the lightest food at 
regular meal times ; be careful not to mince 
between meals nor to eat candy nor 
pickles. Be sure that the lack of appetite 
is not due to mental preoccupation which 
does not let the brain relax long enough 
for the physical needs to assert them- 
selves. One should relax the brain in 
pleasant thoughts during a meal. 

95 



If the appetite is lacking, because of 
physical exhaustion, it is unwise to eat, be- 
cause the digestive organs are tired, and to 
load a tired stomach with food, still 
further weakens it and results in indiges- 
tion. The better plan is to drink two 
glasses of cold water and lie down for an 
hour; if there is still no desire for food, 
drink freely of water, but abstain from 
food until hungry. 

This should not lead one into forming 
the habit of irregular eating, however. 
The stomach forms habits and the supply 
of food must be regular, just as the 
nursing child must be fed regularly, or 
digestive disturbance is sure to result. 

A wise provision of Nature makes the 
system, in a normal condition, its own reg- 
ulator, protesting against food when it has 
not assimilated or eliminated that con- 
sumed. One should learn to obey such 
protests and cut down the quantity when 
Nature calls "enough." 

There are exceptions, however. Some 
phases of indigestion result in a gnawing 
sensation in the stomach, which is often 
mistaken for a desire for food. This is 
not a normal appetite. Water will usually 
relieve it. 



Often loss of appetite is the result of a 
clogging of intestines or liver, or to an 
excess of bile, which, not having been prop- 
erly discharged into the intestines, has 
entered the blood stream. An excess of 
bile and poisons, indicating a torpid liver, 
often expresses itself in a dull mental 
force, the toxins deadening the nerve cells. 
Nature does not call for more food 
until she has eliminated the excess of 
waste. 

It is commonly stated that the body will 
call for what the system requires. This 
may have been true of the aborigines, who 
ate their food in its natural state, and, to 
a certain extent, it is true to-day, but con- 
diments and stimulants, to make the food 
"appetizing," have unduly stimulated the 
nerves and perverted the natural taste; 
foods containing their natural amount of 
spices or extractives no longer tempt one. 
Those whose nerves are highly keyed, form 
the habit of seasoning the food too 
strongly, making it too stimulating. This 
undue stimulant calls for more food at the 
time of eating than a normal appetite 
would demand. The taste being cultivated 
for the stimulant, the habit of eating too 
much food is formed. 

97 



There is a difference between the culti- 
vated and the normal appetite. A child 
rarely shows a desire for stimulants or 
condiments, unless unwisely encouraged by 
an adult, who does it, — noi because it is 
good for the child, but because the individ- 
ual himself has cultivated a taste for it. It 
is as easy to form healthful tastes and 
habits of eating as unhealthful ones, and 
care should especially be exercised in the 
formation of healthful habits by the grow- 
ing child. 

The simple foods, in their natural state, 
are in the right condition to be digested, 
with the aid of heat to break the cellular 
coverings of the globules of some of them, 
but time, energy, muscular activity, nerve 
force, and money are spent in combining, 
seasoning, and cooking foods in such a 
manner as often to render them difficult of 
digestion. 

Deep breathing of fresh air, to throw 
off the poisonous carbon dioxid and to 
supply an abundance of oxygen to oxidize 
the waste, thus putting it in condition to 
be expelled from the system; brisk exercise 
to accelerate the circulation, that the blood 
may carry the oxygen freely and that the 
tissues may liberate the carbon dioxid and 
other waste; and a copious drinking of 

98 



water, are the best tonics for loss of ap 
petite or for a lack of vitality. 

It is economy, therefore, to keep the 
Economy digestive organs and the circulation 

and tissues strong, in order that all 
foods eaten may yield returns, instead of 
hampering activity. 

The food which furnishes the most 
tissue-building substance and yields the 
most heat and energy, with the least re- 
fuse, is the economical food. In the 
selection of food for any individual, the 
result to be gained from the food must 
be borne in mind. If one is doing heavy 
muscular work, more protein to rebuild 
tissue, as well as more carbohydrates and 
fats to produce energy, are required than 
if one's habits of work are sedentary. In 
mental work, where the brain is contin- 
ually active, proteins are required to re- 
supply the brain tissue, but the fats and 
carbohydrates may be lessened. This 
would seem to contradict the theory that 
where one's habits are sedentary and the 
brain alone is active, the proteins are not 
required. In sedentary occupation, the 
carbohydrates and fats are stored within 
the system, clogging it and producing 
torpid liver, constipation, and obesity, — 

99 



unless the brain is sufficiently active to 
use lII of the fuel in brain energy. 

In a dietary study of the following 
tables, the question should be to provide 
the largest quantity of nutriment at the 
lowest cost, with due attention to palata- 
bility and variety. In the selection of 
meats, for instances, while beefsteak may 
cost twice as much as beef stew, it must be 
borne in mind that beefsteak contains 
very little waste, and it contains a large 
proportion of albuminoids, or the tissue 
building proteins, while, in the beef stew, 
the bones and the connective tissue pre- 
dominate; the proteins yielded from the 
beef stew are a large proportion gelati- 
noids and extractives, — not the tissue 
building albuminoids. This would not hold 
in comparing the cheaper and the more 
expensive cuts in the same kind of beef- 
steak; the cheaper cuts often yield quite 
as much nutriment as the more expensive 
ones. Bound steak is just as nourishing 
as porter-house and much cheaper. 

Much is said about the bacteria present 
in the atmosphere, the microbes in the 
food, etc., that one is puzzled to know, 
not only what to eat, but how to breathe, 
and, in fact, which way to turn to avoid 
them ; but microbes and bacteria have been 

100 



present in the atmosphere and in matter 
everywhere since time began. They are 
a part of the natural surroundings, and 
the body, if kept in strong vitality, has 
sufficient resistive power to enable one to 
live unharmed by them. The danger lies 
in allowing the system to run down and 
the vital force to ebb, so that the body 
becomes an easy prey to them. 

There is no doubt but that the 
Habit and habit of eating governs one's con- 
of Eating^ victions of what the system re- 
quires. One is inclined to think 
that a desire for a food is a requirement of 
Nature ; yet it may simply be the continu- 
ance of a habit. The vital organs form 
habits just as one forms a habit of walking, 
sitting or of carry irg the head or the 
hands, and habit re-asserts itself. 

If a mother feeds her babe every three 
hours the child will usually wake and call 
for food about this period. If she has 
formed the habit of nursing the child every 
two hours, it will call for food in about 
two hours, even though all symptoms indi- 
cate that the child is over fed. 

It is important that both child and adult 
establish regular and hygienic habits be- 
cause the digestive juices secrete them- 

101 



selves at the regular periods established. 
A right habit is as easily formed, and as 
difficult to change, as a wrong one. 

If one forms the habit of eating a cer- 
tain amount of food, the stomach calls for 
about the same amount, and when one first 
begins to change the quantity it protests, 
whether the change be to eat more or less. 

Few people form the habit of drinking 
sufficient water, — particularly if they have 
been taught that water at meals is in- 
jurious. In this busy life, few remember 
to stop work and drink water between 
meals, and if not consumed at the meal 
time the system suffers. Many people look 
" dried up." 

The habit of drinking two glasses of 
water upon first arising, and six more dur- 
ing the day is an important one. 

There is no doubt but that a large 
f r tS ue 1 ncy number of people overload the di- 
gestive organs. This, as well as the 
bolting of food, insufficiently masticated, 
cannot be too strongly denounced. All 
food shoidd be chewed to a pidp before 
swallowed. 

As a relief from overeating, many 
theorists are advocating two meals a day, 
but the work of the average man is 

102 



planned into morning and afternoon 
sessions, and the three meals have been 
arranged accordingly. 

Where two meals a day are eaten, the 
first meal should be at nine or ten o'clock 
in the morning and the second meal at 
five or six o'clock in the afternoon; 
whereas, for the average person who eats 
two meals a day, the custom is to go with- 
out food until the midday meal, and then 
to eat two meals within six hours, with 
nothing more for eighteen hours. 

The argument in favor of two meals a 
day has been that the digestive system is 
inactive during sleep, and, therefore, the 
system is not ready for a meal upon 
arising, but the latest experiments 
(Pawlow) show that digestion continues 
during sleep, though less actively. It must 
be borne in mind that the average evening 
meal is eaten about six o'clock and that 
there are about four waking hours between 
this meal and the sleep period; also, that 
the average individual is awake and 
moderately active an hour before the 
morning meal. This gives five waking 
hours between the evening and the morn- 
ing meal. About the same time, five hours, 
elapses between the morning and the mid- 
day meal, and between the midday and the 

103 



evening meal, so that three meals a day 
divide the digestion periods about evenly. 

More frequent meals, served in lighter 
quantity, with greater regularity, so that 
the system is not overloaded at any one 
meals, is rational for delicate, or under- 
nourished nerves and tissues. The little 
child is fed regularly every three hours. 

Effect of Daily exercise and the habit of 

Exercise and full breathing are absolutely 
Breathing upon necessary that the waste of the 
Digestion system may be fully liberated, 

that the nourishment may be 
carried freely to every tissue, and that suf- 
ficient oxygen may be carried through the 
blood to oxidize the waste, or, to put it into 
condition to be thrown off. 

The necessity of oxygen as food is evi- 
dent. The body will subsist about forty 
days upon the food stored within it, with- 
out re-supply, but it can endure only a 
few seconds without oxygen, because heat, 
occasioned by the union of oxygen with 
carbon and hydrogen, is necessary to keep 
up the physical activity termed "life." 
The necessity of habits of full, correct 
breathing cannot be too fully emphasized. 
The quantity of oxygen, daily consumed, 

104 



should fully equal the sum of all other food 
elements.* 

Oxygen is necessary to cause combustion 
of fats, starches and sugars, just as it is 
necessary to cause combustion of carbon 
in wood, or coal. 

The heat from " burning " wood is pro- 
duced by the oxygen of the air uniting with 
hydrogen and carbon, forming carbon- 
dioxid (carbonic acid gas) and water. 

The light in the burning of wood is 
caused by the rapid combustion of the car- 
bonic acid gas. The same combustion 
occurs within the body continuously, 
though more slowly, hence no light is pro- 
duced. 

The carbon in the body is liberated and 
brought into contact with more oxygen in 
the blood through exercise and full breath- 
ing, just as a fire is fanned to flame by 
bringing more oxygen into contact with 
the fire, by means of a draught of air. 
Keep all air away from a fire and it i ' goes 
out," or ceases to unite with the oxygen, 
and no heat is produced ; keep all air from 
within the body, by cessation of breathing, 
and it also becomes cold. A room in which 



Editor's Note. — Measurements of eighteen thousand women 
show that sixty-two per cent of women use only about one-half 
of their lung capacity and less than nine per cent use their 
full capacity. 

105 



the air is impure, containing insufficient 
oxygen, is heated with difficulty, — the body 
which is not constantly supplied with pure 
air generates very little body heat. The 
effect of oxygen in the creation of heat is 
practically demonstrated by repeatedly 
filling the lungs with air while out in the 
cold. The body will become quickly warmed 
on the coldest day by this practice. 

Deep breathing aids digestion and as- 
similation, not alone because of the regu- 
lar exercise given to the pancreas, the 
spleen, the stomach, and the liver by the 
correct movement of the diaphragm, but 
because of the latent heat which the oxy- 
gen liberates within the digestive organs 
and out among the tissues. 

While the chemical action of food 
creates activity within, this activity is 
materially aided by exercise, and oxygen 
is imperative, as shown above. Exercise 
and oxygen are also necessary for chemical 
action in tearing down waste and in put- 
ting raw material into condition to be 
appropriated to the body needs. 

Two glasses of water in the morning and 
fifteen minutes 9 brisk exercise of well 
selected movements, to start a forceful cir- 
culation and to surge the water through 
the vital organs, are a daily necessity if 

106 



one is to keep clean and strong within. It 
is as important to cleanse the body within 
as without. It is the method employed by 
ail men and women who would retain 
strong vital forces to a ripe old age. They 
fully enjoy the mere living. 

Since the condition of the body so 

rv * red h °I ma terially affects the digestion, 

Balance 6 absorption, and metabolism of food, 

as well as the elimination of waste, 

it is not amiss to discuss it here. 

The habit of eating when too tired and 
then at once going to work, so that the 
blood is called from the stomach, is almost 
sure to result in indigestion. 

The average person is tired because the 
brain and nerves are more active than the 
muscles and is rested by muscular exer- 
cise, or change of work. 

The regular work of the body in keeping 
up the heart action and the circulation 
and in renewing and relieving waste, re- 
quires a certain quantity of oxygen to 
liberate energy. This energy the system, 
in normal condition, with normal breath- 
ing, readily furnishes, but when that used 
in undue muscular work is more than that 
being liberated at the time, through com- 
bustion, the energy required for the con- 

107 



stant bodily needs is called upon, and the 
muscles, nerves and tissues are then in the 
state termed " tired.' ? They remain so 
until sufficient oxygen has liberated more 
potential energy than is needed for the 
work constantly going on in the body. 
When a sufficient supply of oxygen has 
been consumed to equal the demand, the 
body is in a state of rest. 

In mental work the nerves and the brain 
call for the surplus energy, while in mus- 
cular work the tissues require it, hence 
undue work, either mental or physical, ex- 
presses itself in bodily fatigue, until the 
oxygen equals the demand in all parts of 
the body. 

A torpid condition of body, producing 
inertness, means that the waste of the 
system is not relieved. It may be that by 
reason of insufficient breathing of pure 
air, sufficient oxygen is not consumed to 
put the waste in condition to be eliminated. 
This poisonous carbon dioxid being 
hoarded, dulls the nerve sensation and the 
brain action and produces more or less of 
stupor. It may be because the circulation 
in some part of the body is clogged (most 
often the portal circulation through the 
liver), so that sufficient oxygen is not 
carried to that part. 

108 



Eelief from this "inertness" is ex- 
perienced most quickly by exercise in the 
fresh air, that the circulation may be 
quickened and the oxygen more freely 
carried to each part. Exercise in one's 
room by the open window, or at least with 
the air in the room pure, is often prefer- 
able to out-door exercise, because the body 
can be nude, or so loosely clothed that the 
oxygen may not only enter the lungs but 
also circulate about the pores of the skin. 
Fifteen minutes of brisk exercise in one's 
room is better than a five-mile walk, be- 
cause if the exercises be intelligently 
selected, every organ and tissue 4 is used, 
while walking exercises only about one- 
fourth of the muscles. If the circulation 
is clogged, the exercising must be kept up 
persistently, until the obstruction is re- 
moved and particular attention must be 
given to the supply of fresh air in the 
room. 

After sleeping in a room with impure 
air, one arises fatigued, because of in- 
sufficient oxygen to liberate the energy 
required for circulation and catabolism, 
and because the carbonic acid gas cannot 
be relieved without oxygen to cause com- 
bustion. As stated above, if the poisonous 
carbonic acid gas remains in the system, 

109 



it deadens the nerve sensation and pro- 
duces a semi-stupor. 

The relief, then, from the state of body 
we call " tired," is in the distribution of 
the circulation, calling the blood from the 
unduly distended capillaries, and supply- 
ing the normal quantity of oxygen. 
Eightly directed physical exercise renews 
the circulation to all parts, incites deep 
breathing, and puts the body in the state 
of harmony called "rest." 

Harmony, either mental or physical, is 
rest. 

With a little more intelligence in keep- 
ing up the supply and demand of oxygen, 
in establishing correct breathing habits, 
and in understanding the law of dis- 
tribution of circulation, which means the 
harmony of forces, this tired world could 
draw a deep, restful breath. 

T n r The state of the mind has much to 

Influence of n . , ■ . A1 , . 

the Mind do m regulating the digestive 

system. Cheerful thoughts put the 

nerves of the entire organism in a natural 

state, while disagreeable thoughts put the 

nerves in a tense, unnatural condition. The 

nerves to the digestive system are affected 

by the tensity of the mind, just as the 

nerves to any other part of the body. As 

no 



an illustration of this ;— if one thinks ugly, 
disagreeable thoughts for a continuous 
period, actual illness results. These 
thoughts affect the digestion in .such a 
manner that the appetite sometimes 
entirely wanes. All so-called "new 
thoughts/' "ologies," or "isms," con- 
ducive to the formation of the habit of 
looking upon the bright side of life, or of 
looking for good and joy in life, put the 
nerves in a natural state, affecting the 
digestion and consequently the health. 
The practice is Christian Sense. 

The nerves control, to a great degree, 
the peristaltic movements of the stomach 
and the action of the absorption cells, as 
well as the cells which secrete the digestive 
juices. Thus it is that a food which one 
likes is not only more palatable, but it will 
digest more readily, because the digestive 
juices flow more freely. 

It is well, therefore, to begin the meal 
with something which tastes particularly 
good, that the flow of these digestive juices 
may be incited. For this reason, if one 
cares for fruit, it is an excellent custom 
to begin the meal with fruit, or with soup, 
containing protein extractives, which 
stimulate the flow of digestive juices. The 
habit of finishing a meal with some tasty 

111 



dessert, is based upon the scientific 
principle that by so doing the gastric 
juices will flow more freely after the meal, 
thus aiding in its digestion. 

Dainty service in a sick-room, because 
of the psychic effect of a meal daintily 
served, is of utmost importance. Because 
of the effect upon the mind the sight of a 
meal served upon soiled linen will almost 
stop the flow of gastric juice and destroy 
the desire for food, while a meal daintily 
served upon dainty linen, with garnishings 
and tasteful table decorations, incites the 
flow of gastric juices. 

The careful wife and mother, who notes 
the appetites of members of her family 
failing, should attend carefully to the 
garnishing of her dishes and to serving 
them in a neat, attractive manner; also to 
changing her table decorations, as far as 
may be consistent, so that the eye as well 
as the sense of smell and taste may be 
pleased. 

It is strange, but it is true, that just a 
fresh flower, or a new table decoration, 
may so put the mind of one who is afflicted 
with nervous indigestion in a receptive 
state that the meal more readily digests, 
while an untidy table, or a lot of food 
served untidily would retard digestion. 

112 



One may be able to control the thoughts 
under most circumstances but the above is 
a physiological fact. 

Sometimes the sight of quantities of 
food turns one against it. The custom 
among hearty eaters, of serving a plate 
too plentifully, destroys the appetite of 
one whose digestion is not so hearty. 

Our grandmothers' overloaded tables, 
with sufficient food of various kinds to 
serve many times the number of partici- 
pants, might stimulate the appetite of 
hearty, strong men, while the very sight 
of so much might turn the appetite of one 
more delicate, whose system did not crave 
food. 



113 



CLASSIFICATION OF 
FOODS 

In the previous chapters, we have given 
the classification of the elements in foods 
which supply the body needs. Below we 
classify the foods commonly used, accord- 
ing to the predominence of these elements. 



Carbonaceous Foods 

While all foods contain a combination of 
element, the foods described below contain 
a greater proportion of carbohydrates and 
fats, and are classed as carbonaceous. 

Of the carbohydrates, next in im- 
Tubers* 1 portance to the sugars and to the 
starches in their purest form (corn 
starch, tapioca,, sago, and arrowroot), 
come the roots and tubers, such as pota- 
toes, sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, tur- 
nips and onions. 

115 



The following table shows the propor- 
tion of various foodstuffs in these vege- 
tables : 

TABLE I— ROOTS AND TUBERS 



Food Materials 


Water 
Per Cent 


Protein 
PerCent 


Fat 

Per (Cent 


Carbohy- 
drates 
Per C«nt 


Ash 
PerCent 


Food Value 

per pound 

Calories 


Sweet Potatoes 


69.4 


1.5 


0.3 


26.2 


2.6 


440 


White Potatoes 


75.0 


2.1 


0.2 


22.0 


0.7 


295 


Parsnips 


64.4 


1.3 


0.4 


10.8 


1.1 


230 


Onions 


86.0 


1.9 


0.1 


11.3 


0.7 


225 


Beets 


87.0 


1.4 


0.1 


7.3 


0.7 


160 


Carrots 


88.2 


1.1 


0.4 


8.2 


6.0 


210 


Turnips 


92.7 


0.9 


0.1 


0.1 


0.6 


120 



Potatoes. It will be noted from the 
above table that sweet potatoes have a 
larger percentage of carbohydrates, hence 
they produce more heat and energy, than 
any other vegetable; next to the sweet 
potato, the Irish potato. 

In the above table, the skins of the vege 
tables are included, and while the white 
potato contains two per cent protein, this 
is almost all located in a very thin layer 
immediately beneath the skin, so that when 
the potato is peeled in the ordinary way, 
the protein is removed. This holds true 
in many vegetables. They lose their dis- 
tinctive flavor, as well as their value as 
tissue building foods, when the skins are 
removed. In baking a potato, the outer 

116 



skin is readily separated from a less per- 
ceptible covering containing the protein, 
and this second skin should be eaten to 
get the full value and flavor. 

In the white potato, of the twenty-two 
per cent carbohydrates three and two- 
tenths per cent is sugar and eighteen and 
eight-tenths per cent is starch. In the 
sweet potato, ten and two-tenths per cent 
is sugar and sixteen per cent is starch. 
Since sugar digests more quickly than 
starch, the sweet potato digests more 
quickly than the white. Because of the 
large per cent or carbohydrates in each, 
it is a mistake to serve these two vege- 
tables at the same meal. For the same 
reason, bread and potatoes should not be 
eaten, to any extent, at the same meal, un- 
less by one who is doing heavy manual 
labor, requiring much energy. 

Onions. Only about four per cent of the 
onion represents nourishment; the eleven 
per cent of carbohydrates is made up of 
two and eight-tenths per cent sugar and 
the rest extractives. Of the extractives 
the volatile oil, which causes the eyes to 
water when peeling, is the most important. 
The onion is not, therefore, so important 
for its actual nourishing qualities as for 

117 



its relish and flavor, and for this it is to 
be commended. It is a diuretic, encourag- 
ing a free action of the kidneys. Because 
of its diuretic value it is commonly called 
a healthy food. An onion and lettuce 
sandwich stimulates the action of the kid- 
neys and is a nerve sedative. 

The volatile oil makes the onion difficult 
for some to digest and, in that case, should 
be omitted from the diet. 

Beets. There is no starch in beets, the 
seven and three-tenths per cent carbohy- 
drates being sugar; they possess, there- 
fore, more nutritive value than onions, and 
they are easily digested. It will be noted 
that it takes many beets to make a pound 
of sugar. 

There are no more delicious nor nutritive 
greens than the stem and leaf of the beet. 
These greens contain much iron and are 
valuable aids in building up the iron in the 
blood, thus correcting anaemia. 

Carrots. Carrots are valuable as food 
chiefly on account of their sugar. They are 
somewhat more difficult of digestion than 
beets and they contain more waste. They 
make a good side dish, boiled and served 
with butter or cream. 

118 






Turnips. Turnips have little value as a 
food. Their nutriment consists in the 
sugar they contain. For those who enjoy 
the flavor they are a relish, serving as an 
appetizer, and, like the onion, are to be 
recommended as a side dish for this pur- 
pose. 

Parsnips. Like carrots, parsnips are 
chiefly valuable for their sugar and for 
the extractives which act as appetizers. 

Since turnips, carrots, onions, and par- 
snips owe a part of their value in nutrition 
to the extractives which whet the appetite 
for other foods, it follows that, if one does 
not enjoy the flavor or the odor, these vege- 
tables lose in value to that individual as a 
food. If one does enjoy the flavor, it adds 
to their food value. 

The question may be asked with 
v ei f hi reason: "Why do we eat green 

s vegetables?" They contain only 

about four per cent nutrition, as will be 
seen by the chemical analysis in the fol- 
lowing table, and are mostly made up of 
water and pulp. It will be noted from the 
table that they are distinctly lacking in 
protein (nitrogenous matter) and in car- 
bohydrates; hence, they have little food 

119 



value. Some of them have strong acids, 
thus increasing the alkalinity of the blood. 
Their merit lies in the fact that they 
have distinct flavors and thus whet the ap- 
petite. Another reason why green vege- 
tables are thoroughly enjoyed is because 
they come fresh in the spring, when the 
appetite is a little surfeited with the win- 
ter foods and one looks for green things. 

TABLE II— GREEN VEGETABLES 



Food Materials 


Water 
per 
cent 


Nitro- 
genous 

Matter 
per 
cent 


Fat 
per 
cent 


Carbo- 
hy- 
drates 
per 
oent 


Mineral 

Matter 

per 

cent 


Pal1 „ Fuel 

per 
cent Calories 


Cabbage 


89.6 


1.80 


0.4 


5.8 


1.3 


1.1 


165 


Spinach 


90.6 


2.50 


0.5 


3.8 


1.7 


0.9 


120 


Vegetable Marrow 


94.8 


0.06 


0.2 


2.6 


0.5 


1.3 


120 


Tomatoes 


91.9 


1.30 


0.2 


5.0 


0.7 


1.1 


105 


Liettuce 


94.1 


1.40 


0.4 


2.6 


1.0 


0.5 


105 


Celery 


93.4 


1.40 


0.1 


3.8 


0.9 


0.9 


85 


Rhubarb 


94.6 


0.70 


0.7 


2.3 


0.6 


1.1 


105 


Water Cress 


93.1 


0.70 


0.5 


8.7 


1.3 


0.1 


110 


Cucumbers 


95.9 


0.80 


0.1 


2.1 


0.4 


0.5 


10 


Asparagus 


91.7 


2.20 


0.2 


2.9 


0.9 


2.1 


110 


Brussels Sprouts 


93.7 


1.50 


0.1 


3.4 


1.3 


0.4 


95 


Beans (string) 


8.92 


2.3 


0.3 


7.4 


0.8 


7.0 


195 


Beans (dried) 


12.6 


22.5 


1.8 


59.6 


3.5 


0.0 


1605 


Peas (green, shelled) 


74.6 


7.0 


0.5 


16.9 


1.0 


0.0 


465 



All fresh vegetables should be masti- 
cated to almost a fluid consistency; other- 
wise, they are difficult of digestion, con- 
taining, as they do, so much pulp. 

They are diuretic, helping the kidneys 
and the skin to rid the system of waste, 
and they are more laxative to the intes- 

120 



tines than the root vegetables, partly be- 
cause of the salts which they contain and 
partly because of the undigested vegetable 
fibre, which helps to move along the waste 
in the intestines. This vegetable fibre, be- 
ing coarse, assists in cleansing the mucous 
lining of stomach and intestines, and, if 
for no other reason than for this cleansing 
of kidneys and intestines in the spring, 
when the system is most sluggish, the use 
of green vegetables is to be commended. 

In larger cities, fresh vegetables are in 
the markets the year around, but if they 
are raised in greenhouses, or in any way 
forced, they lack the matured flavor and 
they also lack the iron which the rays of 
the sun give. If raised in the south and 
shipped for a distance, they are not fresh 
and they do not have as good an effect 
upon the system as when fresh and fully 
matured by the sun. 

All greens, as spinach, chard, dande- 
lions and beet tops, as previously stated, 
contain iron and build red blood corpus- 
cles. 

It is well, then, to eat freely of fresh 
vegetables in their season, even though 
they do not appreciably build tissue or 
furnish energy. By their effect upon the 

121 



blood, the kidneys , skin, and intestines, 
they make sluggish vital organs more effi- 
cient. 

Tomatoes and rhubarb are often, and 
with reason, classed under fruits. 

. Technically speaking, fruits include 

all plant products which bear or con- 
tain a seed. They are valuable for their 
acids and organic salts — citrates, malates, 
or tartrates of potassium, sodium, magne- 
sium, and calcium. In the juices of cit- 
rous fruits, are citrates of above minerals. 

The fruit juices are readily absorbed 
and carried at once to the liver, where the 
sodium, magnesium, and potassium are 
released and the acids oxidized and 
changed to carbonates. They increase the 
alkalinity of the blood. These alkalis are 
soon eliminated through the kidneys, which 
accounts for the diuretic effect of fruits. 

The seeds in the small fruits are not 
digested, but they serve the purpose of in- 
creasing intestinal peristalsis and of as- 
sisting the movement of the contents of the 
intestines. The skin and the fibre of fruits 
also assist the intestines in this way, just 
as the fibre in vegetables does. 

122 



Fruits may be classified into acid and 
sweet fruits. Under acid fruits are the 
citrous group — lemons, limes, grape fruit, 
oranges, cranberries, gooseberries, whor- 
tleberries, pineapples, currants, and rhu- 
barb — if rhubarb is to be classed as a f ruit« 

There has been a commonly accepted 
theory that where a blood test shows evi- 
dence of too much uric acid, acid fruits 
are to be avoided, but the reverse is true. 
It has been fully demonstrated that the 
use of acid fruits increases the alkalinity, 
— or neutralizes the acids in the blood. 

In case of an excess of hydrochloric 
acid in the stomach, lemon, or citrous 
fruits are valuable about half an hour be- 
fore a meal as they decrease the secretion 
of the hydrochloric acid into the stomach. 
Where hydrochloric acid is limited, acids 
are given after a meal to supplement the 
deficient amount. 

The sweetening of acid fruits does not 
detract from the value of the acids or of 
organic salts. 

All acid fruits stimulate the action of 
the kidneys and the skin, — particularly 
lemons, limes, grape fruit, and oranges, 
and wherever the kidneys and skin are not 
sufficiently active, these fruits should be 
eaten freely. 

123 



It is difficult to make a decided distinc- 
tion between sweet and acid fruits. The 
best guide is in the amount of sugar re- 
quired to make them palatable. Some 
species of cherry are distinctly sour, while 
others are sweet. The same is true of 
apples, peaches, plums, etc. 

Under sweet or bland fruits are pears, 
raspberries, grapes, bananas, blackberries, 
blueberries, melons, apricots, and some 
peaches, apples, and plums. 

The large majority of fruits do not 
contain sufficient sugar to make them valu- 
able for nourishment. Their chief value 
is in their appetizing flavor, and in the 
acids, and salts. Dates, figs, prunes, and 
dried grapes (raisins) are exceptions. As 
will be noted by the following table, these 
fruits contain a large amount of carbohy- 
drates in the form of sugar. The larger 
amount of protein in these sweet fruits 
is largely in the seeds and, as the seeds are 
not digested, they have no real food value 
to the individual. 

Figs and prunes are laxative, — probably 
the laxative effect of figs is due to the 
seeds, and of prunes to the salts and acids. 
However, prunes are free from tannic 
acid. 

124 



TABLE III— FRUITS 



Food Materials 


Water 
Per 
Cent 


Protein 
Per 
Cent 


Ether 

Extract 

Per 

Cent 


Carbo- 

^' 
drates 

Per 

Cent 


Ash 
Per 
Cent 


Celln- 
lose 
Per 
Cent 


Acids 
Per 
Cent 


Acid: 
















Apples 


82.50 


0.40 


0.5 


12.5 


0.4 


2.7 


1.0 


Apricots 


85.00 


1.10.. 


0.6 


12.4 


0.5 


3.1 


1.0 


Peaches 


88.80 


0.50 


0.2 


5.8 


0.6 


3.4 


0.7 


Plums 


78.40 


1.00 


0.2 


14.8 


0.5 


4.3 


1.0 


Cherries 


84.00 


0.80 


0.8 


10.0 


0.6 


3.8 


1.0 


Gooseberries 


86.00 


0.40 


0.8 


8.9 


0.5 


2.7 


1.5 


Currants 


85.20 


0.40 


0.8 


7.9 


0.5 


4.6 


1.4 


Strawberries 


89.10 


1.00 


0.5 


6.3 


0.7 


2.2 


1.0 


Whortleberries 


76.30 


0.70 


3.0 


5.8 


0.4 


12.2 


1.6 


Cranberries 


86.50 


0.50 


0.7 


3.9 


0.2 


6.2 


2.2 


Oranges 


86.70 


0.90 


0.6 


8.7 


0.6 


1.5 


1.8 


Lemons 


89.3 


1.00 


0.9 


8.3 


0.5 


1.5 


1.8 


Pineapples 


89.3 


0.04 


0.3 


9.7 


0.3 


1.5 


7.0 


Pears 


83.90 


0.40 


0.6 


11.5 


0.4 


3.1 


0.1 


Blackberries 


88.90 


0.90 


2.1 


2.3 


0.6 


5.2 


1.6 


Raspberries 


84.40 


1.00 


2.1 


5.2 


0.6 


7.4 


1.4 


Mulberries 


84.70 


0.30 


0.7 


11.4 


0.6 


0.9 


1.8 


Grapes 


79.00 


1.00 


1.0 


15.5 


0.5 


2.5 


0.5 


Watermelons 


92.90 


0.30 


0.1 


6.5 


0.2 


1.0 


0.5 


Bananas 


74.00 


1.50 


0.7 


22.9 


0.9 


0.2 


0.5 


Sweet: 
















Dates, dried 


2.08 


4.40 


2.1 


65.1 


1.5 


5.5 


7.0 


Figrs, dried 


2.00 


5.50 


0.9 


62.8 


2.3 


7.3 


1.2 


Prunes, dried 


2.64 


2.40 


0.8 


66.2 


1.5 


7.3 


2.7 


Raisins 


.10.60 


2.50 


4.7 


74.7 


3.1 


1.7 


2.7 



Care should be exercised in selecting 
ripe fruits and those which have not 
started to decay. The difficulty with so 
many fruits, which must be shipped from 
a distance, is, that, in order to reach their 
destination in fair condition, outwardly, 

125 



they are picked before ripe and there is 
too much tannic acid in them. When fruits 
are allowed to ripen on the trees, the tannic 
acid is changed to sugar and fruit juices. 
One test of a ripened apple is to cut it with 
a steel knife — if the blade turns black, or 
if the cut surface of the apple turns brown 
in a few minutes, it should not be eaten, 
for it indicates an excess of tannin. It is 
this tannin which gives the small boy, with 
his green apples, excrutiating pains. It 
will be recalled that the tannin from the 
bark of trees, so toughens the elastic skin 
of animals that we can wear this skin for 
shoes. The effect upon the live skin of 
the stomach and intestines, from the tan- 
nin in food, is not pronounced in toughen- 
ing the skin, because of the activity and re- 
sistance of live matter. 

Bananas are commonly picked green, be- 
cause they decay so quickly that if they 
were picked ripe they would spoil before 
reaching the northern markets. The above 
table shows that bananas contain nearly 
twenty-three per cent of carbohydrates, 
which, in an immature state, are largely 
starches. The natural ripening process 
changes the starch to sugar, thus making 
them more easily digested. The starch 
globules, when not matured* on the tree. 



126 



are not easly broken and are thus difficult 
of digestion. Baking breaks the globules ; 
a baked banana is thus more readily di- 
gested 



Nitrogenous Foods 

As previously stated, in a mixed diet 
meat and eggs are the chief sources of 
nitrogenous foods. Next to these come the 
legumes. 

Meat is almost all digested in the 
stomach by the gastric juice, which 
changes it into peptone. It is needless to 
say that it should be thoroughly masti- 
cated that there may be no delay in the 
prompt action of the gastric juice upon it. 
If any part passes into the intestine undi- 
gested, the process is continued by the 
trypsin of the pancreatic juice. The pep- 
tone is absorbed as peptone and after it 
passes through the inner coating of the 
intestines, it is changed back to protein 
and carried by the blood and lymph to all 
tissues of the body, where it is used for 
growth and repairs. As stated, any excess 

127 



of protein above that needed for growth 
and repair, is oxidized in the blood, 
yielding energy and heat, and the waste is 
eliminated through the kidneys and the 
bile. The red blood corpuscles, which are 
nitrogenous, are broken down in the liver 
and discharged through the bile. 

TABLE IV— ANIMAL FOODS 



Food Materials 


Water 
Per 
Gent 


Protein 
Per 
Cent 


Fat 
Per 

Cent 


Carbo- 
hy- 
drates 
Per 
Cent 


Ash 
Per 
Cent 


Fnel 

Value 

Per 

Pound 

Calories 


Beef, Fresh 


54.0 


17.0 


19.0 




1 0.7 


1,105 


Flank 


54.0 


17.0 


19.0 




0.7 


1,105 


Porterhouse 


52.4 


19.1 


17.9 




0.8 


1,100 


Sirloin steak 


54.0 


16.5 


16.1 




0.9 


975 


Bound 


60.7 


19.0 


12.8 




1.0 


890 


Bump 


45.0 


13.8 


20.2 




0.7 


1,090 


Corned beef 


49.2 


I 14.3 


23.8 




' 4.6 


1,245 


Veal: 














Iieg cutlets 


68.3 


20.1 


7.5 




1.0 


695 


Fore quarter 


54.2 


15.1 


6.0 




0.7 


535 


Mutton : 














Iieg:, hind 


51.2 


15.1 


14.7 




0.8 


890 


Loin Chops 


42.0 


13.5 


28.3 




0.7 


1.415 


Lamb 


49.2 


15.6 


16.3 




0.85 


967 


Ham: 














L.oin chops 


41.8 


13.4 


24.2 




0.8 


1,245 


Ham, smoked 


34.8 


14.2 


33.4 




4.2 


1,635 


Sausage : 














Frankfurter 


57.2 


19.6 


18.6 


1.1 


3.4 


1,155 


Fowls 


47.1 


13.7 


12.3 




' 0.7 


765 


Poultry : 




• 


t 








Goose 


38.5 


13.4 


29.8 




0.7 


1,475 


Turkey 


42.4 


16.1 


18.4 




0.8 


1,060 


Animal Viscera : 














Iiiver (sheep) 
Sweetbreads 


61.2 


23.1 


9.0 


5.0 






70.9 


16.8 


12.1 




1.6 





128 



TABLE IV— ANIMAL FOODS (Continued) 



Food Materials 


Water 
Per 
Gent 


Protein 
Per 
Gent 


Fat 
Per 
Gent 


Carbo- 
hy- 
drates 
Per 
Gent 


Ash 
Per 
Gent 


Fuel 
Value 

Per 
Pound 
Calories 


Tongue, smoked and 














salted 


35.7 


24.3 


31.6 




8.5 




Brain : 


80.6 


8.8 


9.3 




1.1 




Fresh Fish 














Bass large-mouthed 














Black, dressed 


41.9 


10.3 


0.5 




0.6 


215 


Cod steaks 


72.4 


16.9 


0.5 




1.0 


335 


Shad roe 


71.2 


23.4 


3.8 




1.6 


595 


Whitefish, dressed 


46.1 


10.2 


1.3 ' 




' 0.7 


245 


Preserved Fish : 














Halibut, salted, 














smoked and dried 


46.0 


19.1 


14.0 




1.9 


945 


Sardines, canned 


53.6 


24.0 


12.1 




' 5.3 


955 


Salmon, canned 


59.3 


19.3 


15.3 




1.2 


1,005 


Mollusks : 














Oysters, solid 


88.3 


6.1 


1.4 


3.3 


0.9 


235 


Bound clams removed 














from shell 


80.8 


10.6 


1.1 


5.1 


2.3 


340 


Mussels 


42.7 


4.4 


0.5 


2.1 


1.0 


140 


Crustaceans : 














Ijobster, in shell 


31.1 


5.5 


0.7 




0.6 


130 


Crab, in shell 


34.1 


7.3 


0.9 


0.5 


1.4 


185 


Shrimp, canned 


70.8 


25.4 


1.0 


0.2 


2.6 


520 


Terrapin, turtle, etc. 


17.4 


4.2 


0.7 




0.2 


105 



In the composition of meat, of course 
there is more or less fat, varying from two 
to forty per cent, according to the animal 
and to the condition at the time of killing. 

It is possible to combine the fat and the 
lean of meat so as to meet the requirements 
of the body without waste. About ninety- 
seven per cent of the meat consumed is 
assimilated by the system, while a large 

129 



part of the vegetable matter consumed is 
excreted as refuse. The compounds con- 
tained in the animal foods are much like 
those of the body, therefore, they require 
comparatively little digestion to prepare 
them for assimilation— this work having 
been done by the animal — while the vege- 
table compounds require much change by 
the digestive system before they can be 
used in the body. 

Fish and sea foods are, many of them, 
rich in protein, as seen by the above table. 
Note that sardines contain the largest pro- 
portion of protein and next to these, shad 
roe. 

There is a prevalent idea that fish is 
brain food. In so far as fish is easily di- 
gested, it builds brain tissue, but no more 
so than beef, or any food containing a 
goodly proportion of protein, easily di- 
gested, absorbed, and assimilated. 

Lobsters are difficult of digestion and 
they contain little nutrition, so they are 
not valuable as a food. 

Oysters, raw, are easier to digest than 
when cooked. Oysters should not be eaten 
during the spawning season from May to 
September. 

Roasted flesh seems to be more com- 
pletely digested than boiled meat, but raw 

130 



meat is more easily digested than cooked. 
Eoasted chicken and veal are tender, easily- 
masticated, and easily and rapidly digested 
in the stomach. This is one reason why 
the white meats are considered a good diet 
for the sick-room, especially in the case of 
stomach difficulty. Fat meats remain in the 
stomach a much longer time than lean 
meats; thus, gastric digestion of pork, 
which is largely fat, is especially difficult. 
Fried pork, in which the fat is heated to a 
very high degree, is very difficult of diges- 
tion. (See page 197). 

The chief objection to pork, however, is 
that hogs are scavengers and live upon all 
sorts of refuse. Another objection is that 
in preparing hogs for the market, the ef- 
fort of the farmer is to force the feeding 
and get them as fat as possible. This ex- 
cess of fat may result in degeneration of 
the meat tissue. The latter objection does 
not hold, however, for hogs carefully 
fatted for home consumption, or for hogs 
which run in the forests and live upon 
nuts, as do the beech fed hogs of the south. 

The best meats are from young animals 
which have been kept fat and have not been 
subjected to any work to toughen the 
muscles. 

131 



Preserved and canned meats should be 
eaten with the utmost caution, not only 
because of the inferior meat used in the 
preparation of these foods, but also from 
the fact that they may become putrid after 
being canned. 

The proportion of albuminoids, gelatin- 
oids and extractives in meat vary with dif- 
ferent meats and with different cuts of the 
same meat. 

The albuminoids of meat include the 
meat tissue, or the muscle cells. These 
constitute by far the greater part of the 
meat. 

The gelatinoids are the connective tissue 
forming the sheath of the muscle and of 
bundles of muscles, the skin, tendons, and 
the casein of bone. Gelatines are made 
from these and, if pure and prepared in 
a cleanly manner, they are wholesome. 

Gelatin is distinguishable in rich meat 
soups, which jelly upon cooling. 

While the gelatinoids are not muscle, 
they keep the muscles from being con- 
sumed when starches, sugars, and fats are 
lacking, and, in this sense, may be con- 
sidered more in the nature of carbohy- 
drates. 

The extractives consist of a substance 
within the lean meat, known as creatin. 

132 



This creatin is not a food ; it is an appeti- 
zer, and gives to cooked meats, broths, etc., 
their pleasing flavor. In case of anaemia 
where it is necessary to build up red blood 
corpuscles, it is desirable to have the 
patient take the blood of beef, the thought 
of which is usually repellant, but it may 
be made very palatable if it is heated suffi- 
ciently to bring out the extractives, or 
flavor, and then seasoned. 

Unless the beef extracts on the market 
contain the blood tissue in addition to the 
extractives, they are not particularly nour- 
ishing and are only valuable in soups, etc., 
as appetizers. 

One reason why meat soups constitute 
the first course at dinner is because the 
extractives stimulate the appetite and 
start the flow of gastric juices. Bouillons 
eontain no nourishment, because the pro- 
teins have been coagulated by the vigorous 
boiling, but they may be used as a basis 
for vegetables, rice, or barley to give them 
flavor. 

The best method is to make one's own 
soup from the connective tissues (gelati- 
noids) and meat tissue. 

Eggs consist chiefly of two nutrients, — 
protein, and fat (ten per cent), com- 
bined with water, phosphorous, and ash. 

133 



Eggs are a wholesome source of protein 
and are, therefore, classed as nitrogenous 
foods. 

The fat and the iron are in the yolk, 
which is about one-third fat. The yolk also 
contains phosphorous and some ash. The 
white is practically free from fat but con- 
tains sulphur, phosphorous and a very 
little ash. The white and the yolk contain 
almost equal quantities of protein. 

The white of the egg is said to be pure 
albumen; the chief ash constituent is com- 
mon salt. The total phosphorous in the 
white of the egg is equivalent to about two 
per cent phosphoric acid and the total phos- 
phorous in the yolk is equivalent to one 
per cent. 

The dark stain made by eggs on silver 
is due to the sulphur contained in them. 
The iron in the egg is valuable to assist in 
building red corpuscles. 

The large part of the egg, as other pro- 
teins, is changed, mostly in the stomach, 
into peptone, absorbed as peptone and then 
cha$ged back again into protein after ab- 
sorption. That not digested in the stom- 
ach is changed in the intestine, as is the 
case with other proteins. 

Eggs are, no doubt, excellent articles of 
food for nutrition and for tissue building. 

134 



They contain more water than cheese, but 
are more concentrated than milk or oys 
ters. They have practically the same rela- 
tive value in the diet as meat, and make a 
very good substitute for meat. Egg yolk 
in abundance is often prescribed where it 
is necessary to supply a very nutritious 
and easily assimilated diet. 

One of the best methods of preparing 
eggs, which is especially valuable for those 
having delicate stomachs or for those 
who need to build up red blood cor- 
puscles with the iron in the yolk, is in egg 
lemonade or orangeade. Thoroughly beat 
the egg, add the juice of half a lemon or 
orange, sugar to taste, and fill the glass 
with water. 

The citric acid in these fruits partly di- 
gests the egg, changing it into egg albu- 
min, — the egg becomes limpid, no longer 
stringy. From this condition the gas- 
tric juice quickly changes it to peptone. 

Grape juice, cream, and cocoa may be 
used in place of lemon or orange, in order 
to give variety where it is necessary to 
take many of them, but the grape juice acid 
does not partially digest the egg as the 
juice of the lemon does. 

Eggnog is another means of taking raw 
eggs. 

135 



One method which any housewife can 
use to test the freshness of eggs is to drop 
them into a strong, salt brine made of two 
ounces of salt to a pint of water. A fresh 
egg will at once sink to the bottom. After 
the third day the surface of the shell will 
be even with the surface of the water and 
with increasing age they will rise still 
higher. 

There is a prevalent opinion that if an 
egg is boiled hard it is difficult of digestion, 
but this depends entirely upon the mastica- 
tion. If it is masticated so that it is a pulp 
before swallowed, a hard boiled egg is 
digested as readily as a soft boiled one. 
If it is not thoroughly masticated, then an 
egg should not be boiled longer than three 
to four minutes, or should be put into boil- 
ing water and allowed to remain in the 
water for six minutes without actively boil- 
ing. The latter method cooks the egg 
through more evenly. Another method of 
cooking the yolk evenly with the whites is 
to put the egg in cold water, let it come 
to a boil, and then again immerse in cold 
water. Or the egg may be put in cold 
water, let come almost to a boil, removed 
from the stove, and let stand ten to twelve 
minutes in the hot water. Any one of the 

136 



last three methods cooks the white and 
the yolk evenly. 



Carbo-Nitrogenous Foods 

Under this class come cereals, legumes, 
nuts, milk, and milk products. In these 
foods the nitrogenous and carbonaceous 
elements are more evenly proportioned 
than in either the carbonaceous or nitrog- 
enous groups. The different food ele- 
ments in this group are so evenly divided 
that one could live for a considerable length 
of time upon any one food. Some animals 
build flesh from nuts alone, while the her- 
biverous animals live upon cereals and 
plants. 

c , Under cereals, used by man for food, 
come wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice, 
and corn. As will be noted by the table 
below, cereals contain a large proportion 
of starch and are therefore to be used 
largely for heat and energy. Eice contains 
the largest proportion and next to rice, 
wheat flour. 

137 



TABLE V- 


-CEREALS 








Water 
Per 
Cent 


Protein 
Per 
Cent 


Fat 
Per 
Cent 


Carbohydrates 


Ash 
Per 
Cent 


Food Materials 


Starch 
etc. 
Per 

Cent 


Crnde 
Fiber 
Per 

Cent 


Wheat 

Rice 

Oats 

Rye 

Breads and Crackers: 
Wheat bread 
Graham bread 
Rye bread 
Soda crackers 
Graham crackers 
Oatmeal crackers 
Oyster crackers 
Macaroni 

Flours and Meals: 
Flour, wheat 
Corn 3Ieal 
Oatmeal 


10.4 
12.4 

11.0 
11.6 

32.5 

34.2 

30.0 

8.0 

5.0 

4.9 

3.8 

13.1- 

12.5 
15.0 

7.6- 


12.1 
7.4 

11.8 
10.6 

8.8 

9.5 

3.4 

10.3 

9.8 

10.4 

11.3 

9.0 

11.0 

9.2 

15.1 


2.1 

0.4 
5.0 
1.7 

1.9 
1.4 
0.5 
9.4 
13.5 
13.7 
4.8 
0.3 

1.0 
3.8 
7.1 


71.6 
79.2 
59.7 
72.0 

55.8 
53.3 
59.7 
70.5 

69.7 
69.6 
77.5 
76.8 

74.9 
70.6 
68.2 


1.8 
0.2 
9.5 
1.7 


1.9 
0.4 
3.0 
1.9 

1.0 
1.6 
1.4 
1.8 
2.0 
1.4 
2.6 
0.8 

0.5 
1.4 
2.0 



There is no part of the world, except the 
Arctic regions, where cereals are not ex- 
tensively cultivated. From the oats and 
rye of the north, to the rice of the hot coun- 
tries, grains of some kind are staple foods. 

"An idea of the importance of cereal 
foods in the diet may be gathered from the 
following data, based upon the results ob- 
tained in dietary studies with a large num- 
ber of American families : — Vegetable 
foods, including flour, bread, and other 
cereal products, furnished fifty-five per 
cent of the total food, thirty-nine per cent 

138 



of the protein, eight per cent of the fat, 
and ninety-five per cent of the carbohy- 
drates of the diet. The amounts which 
cereal foods alone supplied were twenty- 
two per cent of the total food, thirty-one 
per cent of the protein, seven per cent of 
the fat and fifty-five per cent of the total 
carbohydrates — that is, about three-quar- 
ters of the vegetable protein, one-half of 
the carbohydrates, and seven-eighths of the 
vegetable fat were supplied by the cereals. 
Oat, rice, and wheat breakfast foods to- 
gether furnished about two per cent of the 
total food in protein, one per cent of the 
total fat, and four per cent of the carbo- 
hydrates of the ordinary mixed diet, as 
shown by the statistics cited. These per- 
centage values are not high in themselves, 
but it must be remembered that they repre- 
sent large quantities when we consider the 
food consumed by a family in a year."* 

If one's work calls for extreme muscular 
exertion, the cereals may be eaten freely, 
but if one's habits are sedentary, and 
the cereals are used in excess, there is 
danger of clogging the system with too 
much glycogen, or converted starch. In- 
deed, for one whose occupation is in- 
doors and requires little muscular activity, 

* Charles D. Woods Dr. Sc. in "Cereal Breakfast Foods." 
139 



a very little cereal food will suffice; the 
carbohydrates will be supplied, in suffi- 
cient quantity, in vegetables. Mineral 
matter is supplied in sufficient quantity in 
almost all classes of foods. 

The power of the system to throw off 
food, over and above the needs of the body, 
is a wise provision of Nature, because 
where foods are not supplied in the proper 
proportions, a more liberal diet enables 
the system to select such foods as it needs 
from the abundance. 

Cereals and legumes supply nutrients 
cheaper than any class of foods ; therefore 
a vegetarian diet involves less expense 
than the mixed diet. Meat, eggs and milk, 
which usually supply the proteins, are the 
most expensive foods, and where these are 
eliminated, a large proportion of proteins 
should be supplied by the legumes. 

Wheat. Perhaps no food is as com- 
monly used as wheat, in its various forms, 
It is composed of : 

First — The nitrogenous or protein com- 
pound, chiefly represented in the cerealin 
and the gluten of the bran. 

Second — The carbon extracts, — the larg- 
est contributor to the flour. 

140 



Third — The fats, occurring chiefly in the 
germ of the grain. 

Fourth — The phosphorous compounds, 
iron and lime, found in the bran. 

The kernel of wheat consists of the bran 
or covering, which surrounds the white, 
pulpy mass of starch within. In the lower 
end of the kernel is the germ. 

Flour. In the old time process of mak- 
ing flour the wheat was crushed between 
stones and then sifted, first, through a 
sieve, which separated the outer shell of 
the bran; then through bolting cloth, 
which separated the white pulp from the 
inner bran coating. It was not ground as 
fine as in the present process, thus the glu- 
ten, phosphorous, and iron (valuable 
foods) were, in the old process, nearly all 
left out of the white flour. The second 
bran coating, left by the second sifting, 
was not so coarse as the outer shell but 
coarser than the inner. Care was not form- 
erly observed in having the grain clean 
before grinding, the bran containing chaff 
and dirt, so that it was not used as food 
but was considered valuable for stock and 
was called "middlings." 

The modern process of crushing the 
wheat between steel rollers, crushes it so 
fine that the white flour of to-day contains 

141 



more of the protein from the inner coat of 
the bran than the white flour of the old 
process ; hence, it is more nutritions. 

Bran. Objection is sometimes made to 
bran because the cellulose shell is not di- 
gested, but bran contains much protein 
and mineral matter and, even though it is 
crude fiber, as stated above, this fiber has 
a value as a cleanser for the lining of stom- 
ach and intestines, and for increasing per- 
istalsis, thus encouraging the flow of diges- 
tive juices and the elimination of waste. 
In bread or breakfast foods, it is desirable 
to retain it for its laxative effect. 

The bran has three coats, — the tough, 
glossy outside, within this a coat contain- 
ing most of the coloring matter, and a third 
coat, containing a special kind of protein, 
known as cerealin. The two outer layers 
contain phosphorous compounds, lime, and 
iron. All three coats contain gluten. 

Of course there is more waste in bread 
made with bran and in consequence, there 
is a smaller proportion of the nutrition in 
graham bread. It is held by some, how- 
ever, that more of the nutrition is digested 
than in white bread. 

Gluten flour is made of the gluten of 
wheat. It is a valuable, easily digested 

142 



food, containing a large proportion of pro- 
tein. 

Whole wheat flour does not contain the 
whole of the wheat, as the name implies; 
it, however, does contain all the proteins 
of the endosperm and the gluten and oil 
of the germ, together with all of the starch. 
As a flour, therefore, it is more valuable 
than the white flour, containing more 
nitrogenous elements. 

Graham flour is the entire wheat ker- 
nel; with the exception of the outermost 
scale of the bran. It contains the starch, 
gluten, phosphorous compounds, iron and 
lime. It is the most desirable of the flours 
because, containing the bran, it assists in 
digestion and elimination, and the phos- 
phorous, iron and lime are valuable for 
body building. 

Nutri meal is much the same as Graham 
flour, the chief difference being that the 
bran is ground finer. The wheat is ground 
between hot rollers, the heat bringing out 
the nutty flavor of the bran. It contains 
all of the nutrition of the wheat. 

Bread. As must be implied from the 
above, the " whole wheat,' ' nutri meal, or 
graham flours are necessary if bread is to 
be a complete food. 

143 



There is perhaps no form of prepared 
food which has been longer in vogue. It 
has been known since history began. It 
probably maintains and supports life and 
strength better than any single food. The 
ease with which it is digested depends very 
largely upon its porous condition. When 
full of pores, it is more readily mixed with 
the digestive juices. 

The pores in bread are produced by the 
effort of the gas, released by the yeast, to 
escape. When mixed with water, the flour 
forms a tenacious body which, when warm, 
expands under the pressure of the gas 
from the yeast, until the dough is full of 
gas-filled holes. The walls of the gluten 
do not allow the gas to escape, and thus the 
dough is made light and porous. The more 
gluten the flour holds, the more water it 
will take up in the dough, and the greater 
will be the yield of bread ; hence, the more 
gluten, the more valuable the flour. If the 
bread is not porous, the fermentation is 
not complete, and the bread is heavy. 

Yeast is a plant fungus. In its feeding, 
the plant consumes sugar, changing it into 
alcohol and carbonic acid gas. If the bread 
contains no sugar the yeast plant will 
change the starch in the flour into sugar 
for its feeding. Many housewives, realiz- 

144 



ing that the bread begins to i 6 rise ' ' quicker 
if it contains sugar, put a little into the 
sponge. Unless a large quantity of sugar 
is put in, the yeast will consume it and the 
bread will not have an unduly sweet taste. 

As the yeast causes fermentation, alco- 
hol forms in the dough. This is driven off 
in the baking. If the bread is not thor- 
oughly done, the alcohol continues to fer- 
ment and the bread turns sour. Bread is 
not thoroughly baked until fermentation 
ceases. It is claimed that fermentation 
does not entirely cease with once baking; 
this is the basis of the theory, held by 
some, that bread should be twice baked. 
The average housekeeper bakes an ordi- 
nary loaf one hour. 

Time must be given for the products of 
fermentation to evaporate, in the cooling 
of the bread, before it is eaten and it is not 
ready to eat for eight to ten hours after 
baking. Hot or insufficiently cooked bread 
is difficult of digestion, because it becomes 
more or less soggy upon entering the mouth 
and the stomach, and the saliva and gas- 
tric juices cannot so readily mix with it. 

The best flour for bread is that made 
from the spring wheat, grown in cooler cli- 
mates, because it is richer in gluten than 

145 



the winter wheat. The winter wheat flour 
is used more for cakes and pastries. 

Bread made from milk, is, of course, 
richer and more nutritious than that made 
from water and bread made from potato 
water contains more starch; both of these 
retain their moisture longer than bread 
made with water. 

Mould, which sometimes forms upon 
bread, is, like the yeast, a minute plant. It 
is floating about everywhere in the air, 
ready to settle down wherever it finds a 
suitable home. Moisture and heat favor 
its growth, hence bread should be thor- 
oughly cooled before it is put into a jar or 
bread box and the bread box should be kept 
in a cool place. 

Rye bread contains a little more starch 
and less protein than wheat bread. It con- 
tains more water and holds its moisture 
longer. 

Biscuits. The objection to eating hot 
bread, does not hold for baking powder or 
soda biscuits, if well cooked, because these 
cool more rapidly and they do not contain 
the yeast plant ; hence, they do not ferment 
as does the bread. 

Baking powder is made from bicarbon- 
ate of soda (baking soda) and cream of 
tartar. When these are brought in contact 

146 



with moisture, carbon dioxid is formed, 
and, in the effort to escape, it causes the 
dough to expand and become light. The 
reason that the cook attempts to bake her 
biscuits, or anything made with baking 
powder as quickly as possrble, after the 
baking powder comes in contact with the 
moisture, is that the dough may have the 
full effect of the expansion of the gas. If 
the room in which she mixes her dough 
is cool, or if her biscuit dough is left in a 
cool place, this is not important, as heat 
and moisture are both required for full 
combustion. 

Macaroni and spaghetti are made from 
a special wheat flour rich in gluten known 
as Durum. They contain about seventy- 
seven per cent starch, little fat and little 
protein. They may take the place of 
bread, rice or potato at a meal. 

Rice is a staple cereal in all tropical and 
temperate climates. It requires special 
machinery to remove the husk and the 
dark, outer skin of the kernel. It is seldom 
eaten within three months after harvesting 
and it is considered even better after two 
or three years. It requires thorough cook- 
ing. 

Unhusked rice is called paddy. 

147 



Wild rice is used by the North Ameri- 
can Indians. The seeds are longer, thin- 
ner and darker, than the tame rice. It is 
coming into favor as a side dish, bnt it is 
served more particularly at hotels in soup 
and with game. 

As previously stated, rice contains a 
larger proportion of starch than any other 
cereal and the smallest proportion of pro- 
tein. Next to rice, in starches, comes wheat 
flour; yet whole wheat or graham flour 
contain half as much again of protein. 

Because of the quantity of starch in 
flour, potatoes and rice, it is obvious that 
one should not eat freely of more than one 
of these at the same meal, else the diges- 
tive organs will be overworked in convert- 
ing the starch into sugar and the liver over- 
worked in converting the sugar into glyco- 
gen and back again into sugar; and the 
liver will be overloaded in storing it up. 
By far the best plan is to eat but one cereal 
at a meal. 

Eice contains no gluten, hence it cannot 
be raised in bread. 

Corn (maize) is a native of America 
and has been one of the most extensively 
used cereals. Corn bread and corn meal 
mush were important foods with the early 

148 



settlers, partly because they are nutritious 
and partly because the corn meal was eas- 
ily prepared at the mill and was cheap. 
The germ of the corn is larger in propor- 
tion than the germs of other grains, and it 
contains much fat ; therefore it is heating. 
For this reason, it is strange that corn 
bread is so largely used by inhabitants of 
the southern states. It is a more appro- 
priate food for winter in cold climates. 

Because of the fat in the germ, cornmeal 
readily turns rancid, and, on this account, 
the germ is separated and omitted from 
many cornmeal preparations. 

Hulled corn, sometimes called lye hom- 
iny, is one of the old-fashioned ways of 
using corn. In its preparation, the skin 
is loosened by steeping the corn in a weak 
solution of lye, which gives it a peculiar 
flavor, pleasing to many. 

Cornmeal mush is a valuable breakfast 
food. 

Pop corn. The bursting of the shell in 
popping corn is due to the expansion of the 
moisture in the starch, occasioned by the 
heat. 

Green sweet corn does not contain the 
same proportion of starch as cornmeal, it 
being, in its tender state, mostly water. 
It is laxative, because it is eaten with the 

149 



coarse hull, which causes more rapid peri- 
stalsis of the intestines. 

The claims made for various adver- 

Foods faSt tised breakfast foods would be 
amusing if they were not intended 

to mislead. Nearly all of them have suffi- 
cient merit to sell them, if the advertiser 
confines himself strictly to the truth, but 
the ever pertinent desire to excel, which is 
one great incentive to progress, leads to ex- 
aggeration. For example : Claim is some- 
times made that they contain more nutri- 
ment than the same quantity of beef. Ref- 
erence to above table does not bear out 
such statement; they contain more starch 
but less protein. It is also claimed by some 
advertisers that breakfast foods are brain 
and nerve foods. The idea that certain 
foods are brain and nerve foods is erro- 
neous, excepting that any tissue building 
food (protein) builds nerve and brain tis- 
sue as it builds any other tissue. There 
is a prevalent idea that fish and celery are 
brain food, but there is no scientific basis 
for the theory. 

The grains commonly used for breakfast 
foods are corn, oats, rice, and wheat. Bar- 
ley, and wild rice, millet and buckwheat 
are used in some sections but not enough 

150 



to warrant discussion here. Barley is 
used chiefly for making malt and pearled 
barley for soups. 

The following table, from one of the bul- 
letins published by the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, is interesting 
from an economical standpoint. 



TABLE VI. 

Comparative cost of digestible nutrients and 
available energy in different cereal breakfast foods. 





u 

® a 

.So 


a .2 

•"So 

O «H 


o o c 

|8«g 


Amount for 10 cents 


Food Materials 


"3 o'E 


6 c 
g © 




6 $ 




Oat preparations : 
Oatmeal, raw 


3 


0.24 


1.7 


3.33 


0.42 


0.22 


2.18 


5,884 


Do 


4 


.32 


2.3 


2.50 


.31 


.16 


1.64 


4,418 


Boiled oats, steam 


















cooked 


6 


.48 


3.4 


1.67 


.21 


.11 


1.08 


2,938 


Wheat preparations : 
Flour, Graham 


4 


.40 


2.6 


2.50 


.25 


.01 


1.61 


3,790 


Flour, entire-wheat 


5 


.46 


3.1 


2.00 


.22 


.03 


1.36 


3,188 


Flour, patent 


3.5 


.35 


2.1 


2.86 


.29 


.03 


2.10 


4,700 


Farina 


10 


1.12 


6.2 


1.00 


.09 


.01 


.73 


1,609 


Flaked 


15 


1.69 


9.3 


.67 


.06 


.01 


.46 


1,005 


Shredded 


12.5 


1.62 


8.2 


.80 


.06 


.01 


.57 


1,217 


Parched and ground 
Malted, cooked and 


7.5 


.88 


4.9 


1.33 


•H 


.02 


.94 


2,050 


crushed 


13 


1.43 


8.5 


.77 


.07 


.01 


.53 


1,175 


Flaked and malted 
Barley preparations 
Pearled barley 
Flaked, steam 


11 

7 


1.21 
1.06 


7.2 
4.6 


.91 
1.43 


.08 
.09 


.01 
.01 


.62 
1.04 


1,389 
2,165 


cooked 
Corn preparations : 


15 


1.83 


9.6 


.67 


.05 




.50 


1,051 


Corn meal, granular 


3 


.44 


1.8 


3.33 


.23 


.06 


2.48 


5,534 


Hominy 


4 


.62 


2.4 


2.50 


.16 


.01 


1.97 


4,178 


Samp 


5 


.78 


3.0 


2.00 


.13 


.01 


1.57 


3,342 



151 



TABLE VI. (Continued) 

Comparative cost of digestible nutrients and 
available energy in different cereal breakfast foods. 





u 

9 -3 

.2© 
u ft 
ft 


8 £ 

(B ft 


coc 


Amount for 10 cents 


Food Materials 


a t* 




"5 


A 3"- 


• >> 

Kg 


Flaked and parched 


13 


1.73 


7.5 


.77 


.06 


.01 


.60 


1,335 


Bice preparations : 














1 


Rice, polished 


8 


1.48 


4.7 


1.25 .07 




.94 1,855 


Flaked, steam cooked 


15 


2.31 


9.8 


.67 .04 


.51 j 1,0*6 


Miscellaneous foods 












I 


for comparison: 














Bread, white 


6 


.74 


5.0 


1.67| .14 


.02 


.87 


2,009 


Do 


5 


.62 


4.2 


2.00| .16 


.02 


1.04 


2,406 


Crackers 


10 


1.10 


5.3 


1.00| .09 


.08 


.71 


1,905 


Macaroni 


12.5 


1.08 


7.5 


.80] .09|" .01 


.58 


1,328 


Beans, dried 


5 


.28 


3.5 


2.00 1 .35 j .03 


1.16|2,86S 


Peas, dried 


5 


.26 


3.4 


2.00| .38 1 .02 


1.20 2,974 


Milk 


3 


.94 


9.7 


3.33| .11| .13 


.17|1,030 


Do 


3.5 


1.09 


11.3 


2.86 .091 .11 


.14| 885 


Sugar 


5 




2.8 


2.00] | 


2.00 3,515 


Do 


6 




3.4 


*-<*i : 


1.67,2,940 



The less expensive breakfast foods, such 
as oatmeal and cornrneal, are as economi- 
cal as flour, and, as they supply heat and 
energy in abundance, as shown by above 
table, they should be supplied in the diet in 
proportion to the energy required. They 
are easily prepared for porridge, requir- 
ing simply to be boiled in water, with a 
little salt. 

For invalids, children and old people, 
breakfast foods prepared in gruels and 
porridges are valuable as they are easily 

152 



digested. All should be thoroughly cooked 
so as to break the cells enclosing the starch 
granules. 

Predigested Foods. Some foods are 
claimed to be partly digested and thus 
valuable for those with weak stomachs, 
but breakfast foods are largely starch and 
the gastric juices are not active in the 
digestion of starch. It is digested by sal- 
iva and the ferment diastase in the intes- 
tines. (Diastase is a ferment of saliva and 
pancreatic juice, which changes starch 
into dextrin and maltose, in which form it 
is more easily acted upon by the intestinal 
juices.) 

Experiments with "predigested* ' foods 
do not show a larger proportion of dextrin, 
however, than would naturally be produced 
by the heating of the starch, as these foods 
are being cooked at home. The natural 
cooking at home makes starch more or less 
soluble, or at least gelatinized. As a result 
of these experiments, therefore the "pre- 
digested" argument is not given much 
weight. 

Predigested foods, excepting in cases so 
weak as to be under the direction of a 
physician, are not desirable. Nature re- 
quires every organ to do the work intend- 

153 



ed for it, in order to keep up its strength, 
just as she requires exercise for the arms 
or legs to keep them strong. If an organ 
is weak, the cause must be found and cor- 
rected, — perhaps the stomach or intestines 
need more blood which should be supplied 
through exercise; or perhaps the nerves 
need relaxation ; or the stomach less food ; 
or food at more regular intervals. 

Another argument against predigested 
foods lies in the fact that dentists hold that 
the chewing of coarse food is necessary to 
keep the teeth strong. For this strength- 
ening of the teeth, children are given dry 
crackers and dry toast each day. 

In the so-called "predigested" or 
"malted" preparations, malt is added 
while they are being cooked. Malt is a fer- 
ment made from some grain, usually from 
barley, the grain being allowed to germi- 
nate until the ferment diastase is devel- 
oped. 

There is no doubt that a number of 
foods, containing malt are valuable in the 
hands of physicians to assist in converting 
starch into dextrin or sugar, where dias- 
tase is not formed in sufficient quantity, 
just as pepsin is an aid in the digestion of 
protein, — but eaten indiscriminately, there 
can be no question that it is more inipor- 

154 



tant for the stomach and intestines to per- 
form their natural work and thus keep 
their strength through normal exercise. 
While they are not "predigested," as 
claimed, they are, as a rule, wholesome and 
nutritious. They are cleanly, and made 
from good, sound grain and they contain 
no harmful ingredients. Some contain 
"middlings," molasses, glucose and simi- 
lar materials, but these are in no way in- 
jurious and have value as foods. The dry, 
crisp, ready-to-eat foods are especially 
advantageous because of the mastica- 
tion they require, — this mastication insur- 
ing plenty of saliva being mixed with 
them to aid in digestion. A dish of such 
dry breakfast food, well masticated, to- 
gether with an egg, to furnish a larger pro- 
portion of protein, makes a wholesome 
breakfast. 

Cracked Wheat. In America wheat is 
seldom used whole. In England the whole 
grain, with the bran left on, is slightly 
crushed and served as cracked wheat or 
wheat grits. 

Wheat is also rolled, or flaked, or 
shredded. The majority of wheat break- 
fast foods contain a part of the middlings 
and many of them bran. Farina and glu- 

155 






ten preparations do not contain these, 
however. 

The preparations of the various break- 
fast foods are a secret of the proprietors. 
The ready-to-eat brands are cooked, then 
they are either rolled or shredded, the 
shredding requiring special machinery to 
tear the steamed kernels; later they are 
dried, and, finally packed, sometimes in 
small biscuits. Many preparations are 
baked after being steamed, which turns 
them darker and makes them more crisp, 
Some preparations are steamed, then run 
through rollers, while still wet, and pressed 
into flakes or crackers. 

Oatmeals are the ni€st nutritious cer- 
eals. The oat contains more fat than other 
grains and a larger proportion of protein. 
It is, therefore, the best adapted to sustain 
life in the proportion of nutrient elements. 
On account of the fat, oats are especially 
well adapted for a breakfast food in win- 
ter. Another advantage oatmeal, or rolled 
oats, have as a breakfast food is in their 
laxative tendency, due to the coarse shell 
of the kernel. 

Oat breakfast foods keep longer than the 
foods made from wheat and rice. 

156 



There are no malts, or any mixtures in 
the oat preparations. The difference be- 
tween the various oatmeal breakfast foods 
is in their manner of preparation. They 
all contain the entire grain, with the excep- 
tion of the husk. They are simply the 
ground or crushed oat. In preparing the 
oats before grinding, the outer hull is re- 
moved, the fuzzy coating of the berry itself 
is scoured off, the ends of the berry, par- 
ticularly the end containing the germ, 
which is usually the place of deposit for 
insect eggs, is scoured, and the bitter tip 
end of the oat berry is likewise removed. 

Rolled oats consist of the whole berry 
of the oat, ground into a coarse meal, either 
between millstones, or, in the case of the 
so called " steel cut" oatmeal, cut with 
sharp steel knives across the sections of 
the whole oat groat. 

Quaker Oats consist of the whole groat, 
which, after steaming in order to soften, 
have been passed between hot steel rolls, 
somewhat like a mangle in a laundry, 
and crushed into large, thin, partially 
cooked flakes. The oats are then further 
cooked by an open pan drying process. 
This roasting process insures that all germ 
life is exterminated, renders the product 
capable of quicker preparation for the 

157 



table and the roasting causes the oil cells 
to release their contents, thereby produc- 
ing what is termed the "nut flavor," which 
is not present in the old fashioned type of 
oat product. 

Both Boiled Oats and Quaker Oats are 
now partially cooked in their preparation 
but the starch cells must be thoroughly 
broken and they should be cooked at least 
forty-five minutes in a double boiler ; or, a 
good way to prepare the porridge, is to 
bring it to the boiling point at night, let 
it stand covered over night and then cook 
it twenty to thirty minutes in the morning. 
Another method of cooking is to bring the 
porridge to the boiling point and then leave 
it in a tireless cooker over night. 

The great fault in the preparation of 
any breakfast food is in not cooking it suf- 
ficiently to break the starch cells. 

Puffed Rice is made from a good quality 
of finished rice. The process is a peculiar 
one, the outer covering, or bran, is removed 
and then the product is literally "shot 
from guns;" that is, a quantity of the rice 
is placed in metal retorts, revolved slowly 
in an oven, at high temperature, until the 
pressure of steam, as shown by gauge on 
the gun, indicates that the steam, gener- 

158 



ated slowly by the moisture within the 
grain itself, has thoroughly softened the 
starch cells. The gun retort is pointed into 
a wire cage and the cap which closes one 
end is removed, permitting an inrush of 
cold air. This cold, on striking the hot 
steam, causes expansion, which amounts 
practically to an explosion. The expan- 
sion of steam within each starch cell com- 
pletely shatters the cell, causing the grain 
to expand to eight times its original size. 
It rushes out of the gun and into the cage 
with great force, after which it is screened 
to remove all scorched or imperfectly 
puffed grains. 

This process dextrinizes a portion of the 
starch and also very materially increases 
the amount of soluble material as against 
the original proportion in the grain. 

Puffed Wheat is manufactured from 
Durum, or macaroni wheat, of the very 
highest grade. This is a very hard, glu- 
tinous grain. It is pearled in order to 
thoroughly clean and take off the outer 
covering of bran. It then goes through a 
puffing process, identical with that of 
Puffed Rice. The chemical changes are 
very similar to those of puffed rice. 

159 



Both Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat are 
more digestible than in the original grain 
state. They are valuable foods for inva- 
lids. 

Stale Bread. A food which tastes much 
like a prepared breakfast food, but is 
cheaper, may be made by dipping stale 
bread into molasses and water, drying it 
in the oven for several hours, and then 
crushing it. It is then ready to serve with 
cream. This is a palatable way to use up 
stale bread. 

Crackers and Milk or Bread and Milk. As 
noted by above table, crackers are simi- 
lar to breakfast foods in nutrient elements, 
and with milk make a good food for break- 
fast, or a good luncheon. Business men, 
and others who eat hurriedly and return 
immediately to work, will do well to substi- 
tute crackers and milk, or bread and milk, 
for the piece of pie, which often constitutes 
a busy man's lunch. 

According to investigations made 

Coffees by tlie United States Agriculture 
Experiment Station, cereal coffees 
are made of parched grains. A few con- 
tain a little true coffee, but for the most 

160 



part they are made of parched wheat, bar- 
ley, etc., or of grain mixed with wheat mid- 
dlings, pea hulls, or corn cobs. There is 
no objection to any of these mixtures pro- 
viding they are clean. The cereal coffees, 
as seen by the following table, contain no 
more nourishment than the true coffee, but 
they are probably more easily digested ; 
only a very little of the soluble starch 
passes into the water. Coffee and tea are 
not taken for their nutrition, but for their 
stimulating effect upon the nerves; and, if 
stimulation is desired, the cereal coffees 
fall short. 

TABLE VII. 

Composition of cereal-coffee infusion and other 
beverages. 



Kind of Beverage 


o 

"5 


c 

u 




£1 


I?" 

fc— o 

> 


Commercial cereal coffee (0.5 ounce 












to 1 pint water) 


98.2 


0.2 




1.4 


30 


Parched-corn coffee (1.6 ounces 












to 1 pint water) 


99.5 


a.2 




.5 


13 


Oatmeal water (1 ounce to 1 pint 












water) 


99.7 


a.3 




.3 


11 


Coffee (1 ounce to 1 pint water) 


98.9 


.2 




.7 


16 


Tea (0.5 ounce to 1 pint water) 


99.5 


.2 




.6 


15 


Chocolate (0.5 ounce to 1 pint milk) 


84.5 


3.8 


4.7 


6.0 


365 


Cocoa (0.5 ounce to 1 pint water) 


97.1 


.6 


.9 


1.1 


65 


Skimmed milk 


88.8 


4.0 


1.8 


5.4 


170 



By reference to table VII it will be seen 
that cocoa and skimmed milk contain much 



161 



more nutrition than any of the coffees. 
Their chief value is that they furnish a 
ivarm drink with the meal. They should 
not be too hot. 

Barley or wheat, mixed with a little 
molasses, parched in the oven, and then 
ground, makes about the same mixture as 
the cereal coffee. 

The old fashioned crust coffee, made 
from bread crusts, toasted in the oven, is 
just as nutritious as any of the coffees and 
has the advantage of being cheaper. 

Barley water and oat water, made by 
boiling the grain thoroughly and then 
straining, are nourishing foods for inva- 
lids and children. They are often used 
as drinks by athletes and manual laborers, 
as they have the advantage of both quench- 
ing thirst and supplying energy. 

Gruels are made in the same way, only 
strained through a sieve. This process 
allows more of the starch to pass with the 
water. 

- The legumes are the seeds of peas, 

beans, lentils and peanuts. 
While they are seeds, just as the cer- 
eals are, they differ in that they contain a 
very much larger proportion of protein 
and may be substituted for meat or eggs 

162 



in a diet. In all vegetarian diets the 
legumes should be used freely to replace 
the meat. 

All legumes must be thoroughly cooked 
and thoroughly masticated. Because the 
protein in these foods is more difficult of 
digestion than that in meat or eggs, par- 
ticularly if not thoroughly masticated, they 
are better adapted for the use of men do- 
ing manual labor. Soldiers, day laborers, 
and others, whose work calls for physical 
exercise, can digest legumes, when those 
whose occupation is more sedentary can 
not do so. 



TABLE VIII 


.—LEGUMES 






Food Materials 


*3 

© i 

Pi 


S* 

33a 


a 

£ 


• +3 

-a S © 
©|© 

airs © 


■So 




Dried Legumes: 














Navy beans 


12.6 


22.5 


1.8 


59.6 


3.5 


1,605 


Dried Peas 


9.5 


24.6 


1.0 


62.0 


2.9 


1,655 


Lentils 


8.4 


25.7 


1.0 


59.2 


5.7 


1,620 


Lima beans 


10.4 


18.1 


1.5 


65.9 


4.1 


1,625 


Peanuts 


9.2 


25.8 


38.6 


24.4 


2.0 


2,560 


Peanut butter 


2.1 


29.3 


46.5 


17.1 


5.0 


2,825 


Fresh Legumes: 














Canned peas 


85.3 


3.6 


0.2 


9.8 


1.1 


255 


Canned lima beans 


79.5 


4.0 


0.3 


14.6 


1.6 


360 


Canned string beans 


93.7 


1.1 


0.1 


3.8 


' 1.3 


95 


Canned baked beans 


68.9 


6.9 


2.5 


19.6 


2.1 


600 


String beans 


89.2 


2.3 


0.3 


7.4 


0.8 


195 


Shelled peas 


74.6 


7.0 


0.5 


16.9 


1.0 


465 



163 



The protein of the legumes is of the same 
nature as the casein of milk. It has been 
called vegetable casein. 

Peanuts. While an underground vege- 
table, grown like potatoes, peanuts re- 
semble nuts, inasmuch as they contain so 
much oil. Like other legumes, they require 
cooking. They are roasted because this 
develops the flavor. 

Because of the proportion of the chemi- 
cal elements in peanuts, they will sustain 
life for an indefinite period, without other 
food, as they provide rebuilding material, 
energy and heat. Used alone, however, 
there is no counteracting acid, and it is 
better to add some fruit, such as apples, or 
apples and dates. 

In eating peanuts it is imperative that 
they be masticated until they are a palp; 
otherwise they are very difficult of diges- 
tion. The pain which many people experi- 
ence, after eating peanuts, is probably due 
to eating too large a quantity and not fully 
masticating them, forgetting that they are 
a very rich, highly-concentrated food. Both 
peanuts and peanut butter contain over 
twenty-five per cent of protein and a much 
larger percentage of fat; therefore they 
yield much heat and energy. 

164 



Peanut Butter. While peanut butter 
contains forty-six and one half per cent 
fat, it contains only seventeen per cent 
carbohydrates. Since sugars and starches 
are protections to fat, being used for en- 
ergy before the fats are consumed, if these 
sugars and starches are not supplied in 
other food, the fats in the peanut butter 
are consumed for energy. If starches are 
consumed in other foods, it is clear that one 
who wishes to reduce in flesh should avoid 
peanut butter, as well as other fats. 

Peanut butter is more easily digested 
than the baked peanut, unless the latter is 
chewed to a pulp. It can be made at home 
by grinding the peanuts in a meat grinder 
and then further mashing with a rolling 
pin or a potato masher. A little lemon 
juice mixed with the peanut butter makes 
it not only more palatable, but more easily 
digested. A peanut butter sandwich is 
quite as nourishing as a meat sandwich. 

Shelled Peas. Shelled peas were used 
in Europe as far back as in the Middle 
ages, and there, to-day, the dried or 
" split' ' pea is used quite as extensively as 
the dried bean. In America, peas are used 
almost entirely in the green stage, fresh or 
canned. 

165 



As seen by Table VIII, the green, shelled 
pea contains seven per cent protein and 
sixteen per cent sugar and starch, while 
the dry or " split " pea contains over 
twenty-four and a half per cent protein 
and sixty-two per cent sugar and starch, 
the difference being in the amount of water 
in the shelled peas. Canned peas contain 
even a larger per cent of water. 

A variety of green peas is now being 
cultivated in which the pod of the pea is 
used, just as the pod of the string bean. It 
is a sweet and delicious side dish. 

Dry Peas are used in this country only 
by boiling, putting through a sieve, and 
serving as puree. 

Beans. Baked navy beans may well be 
substituted on a menu for meat, contain- 
ing, as they do, twenty-two and one half 
per cent protein. It is needless to state that 
beans and lean meat or eggs should not 
be served at the same meal. Beans have 
the advantage of being cheaper than meat, 
yet, as stated above, the protein in the le- 
gumes is less easily digested than the pro- 
tein of meat or eggs. They must be thor- 
oughly cooked and thoroughly masticated. 

There is but a small percentage of fat 

166 



in dried beans and for this reason they are 
usually baked with a piece of pork. They 
make a very complete, perhaps the most 
complete food, containing nutrient ele- 
ments in about the proper proportions. 
Effort has been made to make a bean 
cracker for the sustenance of soldiers on 
a march, thus giving them a complete food 
in condensed form. 

In baking dried beans or peas, soft or 
distilled water should be used, as the lime 
of hard water makes the shell almost indi- 
gestible. For the same reason salt should 
be added when the beans are nearly done. 
If soft water is not obtainable, add a little 
baking soda, in the proportion of a half 
a teaspoon to two quarts of water. 

String Beans. The string bean contains 
very little nutrient elements, as shown by 
Table VIII. The pod and the bean, at this 
unripe stage, are nearly ninety per cent 
water. Their chief value as a food con- 
sists of their appetizing quality to those 
who are fond of them, thus stimulating the 
flow of gastric juice. Like all green vege- 
tables, they stimulate the action of the kid- 
neys. For this reason all green vegetables 
are particularly valuable to those who 
drink little water. 

167 



Lima Beans. The dry, shelled bean, 
used during the winter, boiled and baked 
is the lima bean. 

Kidney Beans contain much water but 
are more nutritious than the string bean. 

Soy Bean. In China and Japan this 
bean is used extensively. Being rich in 
protein, it makes a well balanced diet with 
rice. 

The soy bean is made into various prep- 
arations, one of the most important being 
shoyo, now being introduced into other 
countries. To make it, the soy bean is 
cooked and mixed with roasted wheat flour 
and salt ; into this is put a special ferment. 
It is then allowed to stand for years in 
casks. The result is a thick, brown liquid 
with a pungent, agreeable taste. It is very 
nourishing. 

A kind of cheese is also made from boil- 
ing the soy bean for several hours, then 
wrapping the hot mass in bundles of straw, 
and putting it in a tightly closed cellar for 
twenty-four hours. 

Lentils are not commonly used in this 
country, but they were one of the earliest 
vegetables to be cultivated in Asia and the 
Mediterranean countries. They are im- 
ported and are found only in the best mar- 

168 



kets of large cities. They are used in the 
menu like dried peas and are fully as nour- 
ishing, but the flavor of the lentil is pro- 
nounced and they are not as agreeable to 
the average person as peas or beans. 

Nuts are classed with the carbo-nitreg- 
ts enous foods, because of the more nearly 
equal proportion of proteins and carbon- 
aceous substances. 



TABLE 


IX.- 


-NUTS 








Food Materials 


•- a 


<£* 05 


43 




■ -^ 
•5 ® ® 

s« *2 ». 
«T3 05 


43 

a 
Oh 


cs p.S 

05 fci * 


Almonds 


4.8 


21.0 


54.90 


17.3 


2.0 


3,030 


Brazil nuts 


5.3 


17.0 


66.80 


7.0 


3.9 


3,329 


Filberts 


3.7 


15.6 


65.30 


13.0 


2.4 


3,342 


Hickory nuts 


3.7 


15.4 


67.40 


11.4 


2.1 


3,495 


Pecans 


3.0 


16.7 


71.20 


13.3 


1.5 


3,633 


English walnuts 


2.8 


16.7 


64.40 


14.8 


1.3 


3,305 


Chestnuts, fresh 


45.0 


6.2 


5.40 


42.1 


1.3 


1,125 


Walnuts, black 


2.5 


27.6 


56.30 


11.7 


1.9 


3.105 


Cocoanut, shredded 


3.5 


6.3 


57.30 


31.6 


1.3 


3,125 


Peanuts, roasted 


1.6 


30.5 


49.20 


16.2 


2.5 


3,177 



It will be noted, by reference to the 
table, that nuts contain a much larger pro- 
portion of fats and less starch than the 
legumes. Chestnuts contain the largest 
amount of starch, pecans the most fat, and 
roasted peanuts the most protein. 

169 



Nuts are a valuable food, but they should 
be made a part of a meal and may well 
take the place of meat, because of the large 
percentage of protein, rather than to be 
eaten as a dessert. They are too hearty 
to eat at the end of a meal, after one has 
eaten as much other food as the system 
requires. In planning a meal, if the diet- 
ary is rich in starches and lacking in pro- 
tein, a side dish of nuts may be served. 

Too great stress cannot be laid upon the 
importance of the thorough mastication 
of nuts ; otherwise they are difficult of di- 
gestion. When thoroughly chewed, how- 
ever, they are as easily digested as cereals 
or legumes. If ground fine in a meat 
grinder or through a sieve, they digest 
more readily, but this grinding does not 
take the place of the grinding with the 
teeth and the mixing with saliva. They are 
best ground for salads, cake or croquettes. 

Milk is called a complete food). It is a 
perfect food for the sustenance of its 
own species, — the milk of the cow for the 
calf, the mother's milk for the infant; yet 
the milk of the cow is not perfect for the 
child, — it is lacking in the proper propor- 
tion of sugar, and when fed to the child a 
little sugar is added. 

170 



There has been a tendency among cer- 
tain classes, to recommend an all-milk diet, 
because the proteins, carbohydrates and 
fats are in proportion to sustain life indefi- 
nitely, but experiments have shown that 
healthy, digestive organs d" their work 
better when a part of the ;d is solid. 
Moreover, if an all-milk diet ;? followed, 
the adult, in order to get Birficient nutri- 
ment, would be compelled to take a larger 
proportion of water than necessary, the 
proportion of water required by the sys- 
tem being about sixty-seven per cent, while 
milk contains eighty-seven per cent. 

In order for the adult to get the proper 
quantity of carbohydrates and fat, from 
an all-milk diet, it would be necessary to 
drink from four to five quarts of milk a 
day (sixteen to twenty glasses). There- 
fore, although an exceedingly valuable 
food, containing nutriment elements for 
repair and to supply heat and energy for 
an indefinite time, milk is not a desirable, 
perfect food for an adult. 

If the mother's milk contains eighty- 
seven per cent water it seems not too much 
for the infant. Young babies, on a milk 
diet, are almost always fat. This is not 
because the fats, sugars and starches are 
in too large a proportion to the protein, 

171 



but it bears out the theory, which is fully 
demonstrated in actual experiments of the 
writer with over twenty thousand women, 
that the free drinking of liquid at a meal 
aids digestion and a better absorption and 
assimilation of food. 

One advantage of drinking milk with the 
meal, is that it is not taken as cold as water 
and it supplies a portion of actual food. 



TABLE X. 










Milk and MilJc Products. 








Food Materials 


u 

£ 

* 


X 

a 
'3 
o 

u 
Pi 


CD 


3 

M 


DO 


■ 

CO 


fa 


Milk 


86.8 


4.0 


3.7 


4.8 


0.7 




Skimmed milk 


88.0 


4.0 


1.8 


5.4 


0.8 




Buttermilk 


90.6 


3.8 


1.2 


3.3 


0.6 


0.3 


Cream 


66.0 


2.7 


26.7 


2.8 


1.8 




Cheese 


36.8 


33.5 


24.3 




5.4 




Butter 


6.0 


0.3 


91.0 




2.7 





Eeference to the above table shows that 
the thirteen per cent of organic foods are 
about equally divided between fat, sugar 
and protein. The protein is casein. There 
is no starch in milk. The digestive fer- 
ment, which acts upon starch, has not de- 
veloped in the young babe and the infant 
cannot digest starch. The salts promote 
the growth of bone. 

172 



The fat in milk is in small emulsified 
droplets within a thin albuminous sheath. 
When allowed to stand in a cool place it 
rises to the top. 

Besides casein, there is a certain amount 
of albumen in milk, — about one-seventh of 
the total amount. This is called lactal- 
bumin. 

A part of the digestion of the casein is 
performed by pepsin in the stomach and a 
part by the trypsin of the pancreatic juice. 

Digestion of Milk. The larger part of 
the digestion of the milk sugar is per- 
formed by the pancreatic juice; yet it is 
partly acted upon by the saliva. There is 
little chance for the saliva to act upon the 
milk sugar in the mouth, however, as very 
little saliva is mixed with the milk. This 
constitutes another objection to the diet 
of all milk, and is an argument in favor of 
drinking milk slowly and holding it in the 
mouth until it is mixed with saliva. It is 
one reason, also, why children should be 
given bread broken in the milk, instead of 
a piece of bread and a glass of milk. By 
swallowing the milk slowly, the curds 
formed in the stomach are smaller and the 
milk is more thoroughly digested. 

When the fat (cream) is removed milk 
digests more readily, so that in case of 

173 



delicate stomachs skimmed milk, clabbered 
milk or buttermilk are often prescribed 
instead of sweet milk. Boiled milk is also 
more easily digested by some because of 
the lactalbumin which is separated and 
rises to the top in a crinky skum. The 
casein is also more readily digested in 
boiled milk, forming in small flakes in the 
stomach instead of in curds. 

When one takes from two to three 
glasses of milk at a meal, less solid food 
is needed, because the required nutriment 
is partially supplied with the milk. One 
reason why milk seemingly disagrees with 
many people, is because they lose sight of 
the fact that milk is an actual food, as 
well as a beverage and they eat the same 
quantity of food in addition to the milk 
that they eat if drinking water. This is 
the reason that milk seems to make some 
people billious and causes constipation. 
It is due to too much food rather than to 
any quality in the milk. 

Constipation may be occasioned by 
drinking milk rapidly so that large curds 
are formed by the acids in the stomach, 
rendering it difficult of digestion. The 
constipating effect will be overcome by 
lessening the quantity of food and by the 
addition of limewater to the milk. 

174 



To prepare limewater put a heaping 
teaspoon of slaked lime into a quart of 
boiled or distilled water ; put into a corked 
bottle and shake thoroughly two or three 
times during the first hour. Then allow 
the lime to settle, and after twenty-four 
hours pour or siphon off the clear fluid. 

Barley water or oatmeal water added to 
milk also prevent the formation of curds. 

In young babes the milk is curdled, or 
the casein separated from the water and 
sugar, not by hydrochloric acid, but by a 
ferment in the gastric juice, known as ren- 
nin. It is the rennin, or rennet, from the 
stomachs of young calves and young pigs, 
which is used to coagulate the casein in 
cheese factories. 

Milk is coagulated or curded by many 
fruit and vegetable acids, as the housewife 
well knows, using milk in pies contain- 
ing certain acid fruits, such as lemons, 
or in soup containing tomatoes. The hy- 
drochloric acid of the stomach at once 
causes a similar coagulation, though the 
curds are tougher and more leathery. The 
milk forms into curds immediately upon 
entering the stomach. This is the natural 
process of milk digestion and is the chief 
reason why it should be drunk slowly, 
otherwise the curds will form in too large 

175 



sizes, thus pressing upon the entrance to 
the stomach and causing distress. The 
tough, large curds formed by the hydro- 
chloric acid, are difficult for invalids or for 
very delicate stomachs to digest. 

If an alkali, such as limewater, is 
added, to neutralize the acids of the stom- 
ach, the curds do not form, or are re-dis- 
solved, and digestion is aided. One sixth 
limewater to five-sixths milk is the proper 
proportion. 

Milk Tests. In testing the value of milk, 
or the value of a cow, butter makers and 
farmers gauge it by the amount of butter 
fat in the milk, while the cheese maker tests 
the milk for the proportion of protein 
(casein). The amount of butter fat de- 
pends upon the feed and water, and upon 
the breed. The milk from Jersey and 
Guernsey cows yields about five per cent 
butter fat. If the total nutrient elements 
fall below twelve per cent, it is safe to as- 
sume that the milk has been watered. 

In cheese and butter there is no sugar: 
it remains in the buttermilk and the whey, 
both of which the farmer takes home from 
the factories to fatten his hogs. 

Preserving Milk. Many forms of bac- 
teria thrive in milk and it is needless to 
say that the utmost cleanliness should be 

176 



observed on the part of the dairyman in 
the care and cleanliness of his cows, in the 
cleanliness of the milk receptacles, and in 
the place in which the milk is allowed to 
stand over night. Care and cleanliness in 
the home is quite as important. 

If milk could be kept free from bacteria, 
it would keep sweet almost indefinitely. 
At the Paris Exposition, milk from several 
American dairies was kept sweet for two 
weeks, without any preservative, except 
cleanliness and a temperature of about 
forty degrees. The United States Bureau 
of Animal Industry states that milk may 
be kept sweet for seven weeks without the 
use of chemicals. 

The best method for the housewife to 
follow is to keep the milk clean, cool, and 
away from other foods. 

Pasteurized Milk. In pasteurizing milk 
the aim is to destroy as many of the bac- 
teria as possible without causing any chem- 
ical changes or without changing the fla- 
vor. One can pasteurize milk at home by 
placing it in an air tight bottle, immersing 
the bottle to the neck in hot water, heating 
the water to one hundred and forty-nine 
degrees F for a half hour and then quickly 
cooling the milk to fifty degrees, by im 

177 



mersing the bottle in cold water. The 
rapid cooling lessens the cooked taste. 
Many of the best dairies pasteurize the 
milk in this way before it is marketed. 

Sterilized Milk. Milk is sterilized to de- 
stroy all bacteria, by boiling it. It must 
sometimes be boiled one, two or three suc- 
cessive days. Sterilized milk remains 
sweet longer than pasteurized milk, but 
more chemical changes are produced and 
the flavor is changed. 

Formerly borax, boric acid, salicylic 
acid, formalin and salt petre were used to 
keep the milk sweet, but this adulteration 
is now forbidden by the pure food laws. 

Malted Milk is a dry, soluble food prod- 
uct in powder form, derived from barley 
malt, wheat flour and cows milk, with the 
full amount of cream. 

The process of the extraction from the 
cereals is conducted at elevated tempera- 
tures so as to allow the active agents 
(enzymes) of the barley malt to affect the 
conversion of the vegetable protein and 
starches. The filtered extract, contain- 
ing the derivatives of the malt, wheat and 
the full-cream cows milk, is then evapor- 
ated to dryness in vacuo, the temperature 
being controlled so as to obviate any alter- 
ation of the natural constituents of the 

178 



ingredients and so as to preserve their full 
physiological values. The strictest pre- 
cautions are observed to insure the purity 
of the product. It contains, 

Fats 8.75 

Proteins 16.35 

Dextrine 18.80 

Lactose and Maltose 49.15 

(Total Soluble Carbohydrates)-. 67.95 

Inorganic Salts 3.86 

Moisture 3.06 

It is free from germs, the starches and 
sugars being converted in the process of 
manufacture in maltose, dextrine and lac- 
tose. The fats are in an absorbable condi- 
tion, and it contains a high percentage of 
proteins derived from both the milk and 
the grains, as well as a marked percentage 
of mineral salts. It is readily soluble in 
water and is easily digested* 

Smierkase, made in the home, is coagu- 
lated casein. It contains thirty-three 
per cent protein, twenty-four per cent fat 
and five per cent salts. The thickening 
of the milk, or the coagulation of the ca- 
sein, is like that produced by lactic acid. 

Skimmed Milk, as shown by the table, 
contains the same amount of protein as 
fresh milk, but more sugar and more ash, 
the difference consisting almost entirely of 
less fat, which has been removed in the 
cream. 

179 



Buttermilk. There is less fat, protein, 
sugar or ash in buttermilk than in skimmed 
milk; it is therefore less nourishing but 
more easily digested. The sugar has par- 
tially fermented and the free lactic acid 
gives the pungent taste. Buttermilk made 
by lactone tablets and fresh milk is as 
nourishing and as desirable as that made 
in the process of butter making, and it has 
the advantage of being fresh. 

Clabbered Milk. The casein in clabbered 
milk coagulates, and, if kept in a hot place, 
the coagulation continues until the water, 
sugar and salt are separated. This is the 
whey, which is fed to hogs, — the sugar fat- 
tens them. 

Milk Sugar. Sugar made from milk is 
now a commercial factor; it is evaporated 
and compressed into a fine powder. This 
powder is used by physicians and drug- 
gists in mixing powders, pills, tablets, etc. 

Milk Junket. The junket tablets, used in 
milk junket, are milk coagulated by rennet. 
Flavored milk coagulated by rennet, has 
not the sour taste of milk coagulated by 
acid. 

Condensed Milk is made by evaporating 
the water until the milk is reduced to about 
one fourth its volume. It is then sterilized 
and hermetically sealed. It is convenient 

180 



for use, wherever fresh milk cannot be ob- 
tained, but the process of evaporation 
changes its flavor so that few care for it 
as a drink. It makes a good substitute for 
cream in coffee, and diluted with three 
times its volume in water, it is again of 
the same constituency as before the water 
was evaporated, 



<81 



BEVERAGES 

Tea is made by steeping the leaves of a 

shrub, which grows in the tropical 
regions of Asia and adjacent islands. The 
green tea comes from China and Japan 
and the darker varieties from India and 
Ceylon. 

It should never be boiled nor allowed to 
stand longer than a few minutes, as stand- 
ing in water causes tannin to be extracted 
from the leaves, and this tannin disturbs 
digestion. It is the tannin extracted from 
the bark of trees which toughens animal 
skins into leather. The best way to make 
tea is to pour on boiling water and serve 
almost immediately, or at least within five 
to ten minutes. 

Because of the uncertainty as to the 
length of time tea may be allowed to steep 
in hotel kitchens or restaurants, it is a 
wise custom to have a ball of tea and a pot 
of hot water served that the guest may 
make the tea at the table. 

183 



Tea, as well as coffee, is diuretic — stimu- 
lating the action of the kidneys. It is not 
a food; it is a stimulant. 

Thein, which is the ingredient for which 
tea is drunk, is chemically identical with 
caffein in coffee. 

Coffee is a beverage, prepared from 

° ee the seeds of the coffee tree. The best 

known brands come from the Island of 

Java, Mocha, Eio de Janeiro, and Mexico. 

Coffee is not a food. The active prin- 
ciple is caffein. This is an alkaloid and is 
a strong stimulant to the central nervous 
system. It quickens the heart action, and, 
unless the heart be weak, one does not need 
so strong a stimulant. The stimulating 
effect is so apparent with many, that they 
cannot sleep for several hours after drink- 
ing it. Others drink coffee to quicken men- 
tal activity and to keep them awake. 

It must be borne in mind, however, that 
there is a reactionary effect from all stimu- 
lants, and while coffee is not intoxicating, 
as alcohol, it has a similar effect upon the 
nerves and heart. It is given to those ad- 
dicted to liquor, as a milder stimulant, 
when they are recovering from a spell of 
intoxication. 

184 



Whether because of the strong stimu- 
lant, or because of some chemical effect of 
caffein, coffee retards digestion, especially 
when the digestive organs are weak. It 
has the redeeming feature, of having a 
pleasing aroma, which, because of the ef- 
fect upon the mind, may incite the flow of 
gastric juice ; but, despite the fact that no 
morning beverage has quite the same 
pleasing aroma, or pungency, as coffee, 
one is much better without it. 

One who knows that coffee disturbs his 
digestion and yet cannot break himself 
from the habit of drinking it, should have 
sympathy for the one who is addicted to 
liquor and finds it difficult to break the 
habit of depending upon this so-called 
stimulant. 

Cereal Coffee has been discussed under 
the heading "Cereals." 

Cocoa and Chocolate are prepared 
ocoa an f rom the chocolate bean. Cocoa is 

from the shell of the bean and 
chocolate from the kernel. As shown by 
Table VII, they are more nutritious than 
the other beverages; yet the fat in choco- 
late is not like the fat in other foods. It 
is not used as a reserve in animal tissue 
as are the other fats. 

185 



TEe active principle in cocoa and choco- 
iate is theobromin and is similar to caffein 
in its stimulating effect upon tlie nervous 
system, though milder. 

Lemonade and other fruit drinks, 
Lemonade p ar ti C ularly those made from the 
citrous fruits, slake the thirst more quickly 
than most drinks. 

All fruit drinks are diuretic, and, where- 
ever the action of the kidneys is sluggish, 
they are especially desirable. 

are made from bottling some 
ar omze drink, and, before sealing, forc- 
ing carbon dioxid into the bottle 
under pressure. As soon as the cork is 
removed the escape of the gas causes effer- 
vescence. These drinks have no advant- 
age, other than that they slake the thirst. 

There is no beverage nor concoction 
devised by man equal to water. It is 

to be deplored that it is not used as freely 

as Nature demands, — from eight to ten 

glasses a day. 

The value of water as a food and as an 

aid to digestion is discussed on page 41. 

186 



CONDIMENTS 

Without doubt, highly spiced foods are 
undesirable. They tend to weaken diges- 
tion, by calling for an undue secretion of 
digestive juices, which, if prolonged, tires 
out the glands. A reasonable amount of 
condiments such as pepper, nutmeg, cloves, 
allspice, sage, thyme, ginger, mustard, cin- 
namon, mace, horseradish, vanilla, dill, 
etc., may be used as appetizers, because the 
pleasing thought of them may incite the 
flow of gastric juice ; but if one has not cul- 
tivated a taste for them this thought will 
not be pleasing and they are then better 
omitted from the diet. The taste is un- 
doubtedly a cultivated one, and should not 
be encouraged in children. The child rarely 
cares for condiments and it Is better that 
he continue to relish his food for its nat- 
ural flavor. 

Condiments are not foods. 



187 



PRESERVATION OF FOODS 

All food for preservation should be kept 
in a clean, cool, dry, dark place. Beduc- 
tion in temperature to near freezing, and 
removal of moisture and air stop bacterial 
development. 

Drying, cooking, and sealing from the 
air will preserve some meats and fruits, 
while others require such preservatives as 
sugar, vinegar and salt. The preservative 
in vinegar is acetic acid. 

All preservatives which are actual foods, 
such as sugar, salt and vinegar, are to be 
recommended, but the use of antiseptic pre- 
servatives, such as salicylic acid, formal- 
dehyd, boracic acid, alum, sulphur and ben- 
zonate of soda, all of which have been used 
by many canning merchants, is fr ought 
with danger. The United States De- 
partment of Agriculture holds, that by 
the use of such preservatives, unscrup- 
ulous dealers may use fruits and vege- 
tables not in good condition. 

189 



There can be no doubt that, wherever 
possible, the best method for the house- 
wife to preserve food is to do her own dry- 
ing, canning, preserving and pickling of 
fruits and vegetables, which she knows are 
fresh, putting up her own preserves, jams, 
jellies, pickles, syrups, grape juice, etc. 

Since economy in food lies in the least 
amount of money for the greatest amount 
of nutriment, the preparation of simple 
foods in the home, with a care that no more 
is furnished for consumption than the sys- 
tem requires, is the truest economy in 
health and in doctor's bills. 

It is not more brands of prepared food 
which are needed, but purity of elements 
in their natural state. A dish of whole- 
some, clean oat meal has more nourishment 
and more fuel value than the average pre- 
pared food. 

In the effort to emphasize the impor- 
tance of pure food in amount and quality, 
pure air and pure water must not be over- 
looked. Much infection is carried by these 
two elements. Pure air, containing a nor- 
mal amount of oxygen, is absolutely neces- 
sary that the system may digest and assim- 
ilate the foods consumed. 



190 



COOKING 

The cooking of food is as important as 
its selection, because the manner of cooking 
makes it easier or more difficult of diges- 
tion. The question of the proper selection 
and cooking of food is so vital to the health 
and resultant happinees of every family, 
and to the strength and well being of a 
nation, that every woman, to whom the 
cooking for a family is entrusted, should 
have special preparation for her work, and 
every girl should be given practical and 
theoretical training in Dietetics in our pub- 
lic schools. The study is as dignified as 
the study of music and art. Indeed it can 
be made an art in the highest conception 
of the term. Surely the education of every 
girl in the vocation, in which she sooner or 
later must engage, either actively or by 
directing others, means more than educa- 
tion in music and drawing. We must all 
eat two and three times every day; there 
are few things which we do so regularly 

191 



and which are so vital ; yet in the past we 
have given this subject less study than any 
common branch in our schools. When the 
dignity of the profession of dietetics is 
realized, the servant problem will be 
largely solved. 

In cooking any food, heat and moisture 
are necessary, the time varying from 
thirty minutes to several hours, according 
to different foods. Baked beans and meats 
containing much connective tissue, as boil- 
ing and roasting cuts, require the longest 
time. 

The purposes in the cooking of foods 
are: the development of the flavor, which 
makes the food appetizing, thus encour- 
aging the flow of gastric juice ; the sterili- 
zation, thereby killing all parasites and 
micro-organisms, such as the tape worm 
in beef, pork, and mutton, and the trichinae 
in pork; the conversion of the nutri- 
ents into a more digestible form, by par- 
tially or wholly converting the connective 
tissue into gelatin. 

The fundamental principle to be ob- 
Cooking served in the cooking of meat con- 
of Meats cerns the retention of the juices, 

since these contain a large part of 
the nutrition. The heat develops the fla- 

192 



vor, and the moisture, together with the 
heat, dissolves the connective tissue and 
makes it tender. 

A choice piece of meat may be toughened 
and made difficult of digestion, or a tough 
piece may be made tender and easy to 
digest, by the manner of cooking. 

Soups. To make meat soups, the connec- 
tive tissue, bone and muscle should be put 
into cold water, brought slowly to the boil- 
ing point and allowed to simmer for hours. 
It must be remembered that the gelatin 
from this connective tissue does not con- 
tain the tissue building elements of the al- 
buminoids. These are retained in what 
meat may be about the bones of the boiling 
piece and in the blood. 

The albumin of meat is largely in the 
blood and it is the coagulated blood which 
forms the scum on soup, if heated above 
a certain point; the cook should boil the 
soup slowly, or much of the nutrition is lost 
in the coagulated blood, or skum. 

Roasting. The flavor and juice of the 
meat is best retained by roasting. If it is 
put into a hot oven, with a little suet over 
the top, so as to sear the meat with hot 
fat, and no water is put in the pan, it will 

193 



retain the juice and the flavor. Water 
draws out the extractives. 

It is important to remember that the 
smaller the cut to be roasted, the hotter 
should be the fire. An intensely hot fire 
coagulates the exterior and prevents the 
drying up of the meat juice. After the sur- 
face is coagulated and seared it should cook 
slowly. 

Unless the oven is sufficiently hot to sear 
the surface, the moisture, or juice, will es- 
cape into the roasting pan and the connec- 
tive tissue will be toughened. A roast 
should be cooked in a covered roaster to 
retain the moisure. 

The roast should be turned as soon as 
one side is seared and just sufficient water 
put into the pan to keep it from burning. 

Frequent basting of a roast, with the fat, 
juice, and water in the roasting pan, still 
further sears the surface, so that the juices 
do not seep through and keeps the air in 
the pan moist; the heated moisture mate- 
rially assists in gelatinizing the connective 
tissue, — roasting pans are now made which 
are self -basting. 

Broiling. The same principle applies to 
broiling as to roasting. The meat is put 
over a very hot flame and turned so as to 

194 



quickly sear both sides, to prevent the juice 
from oozing out. In fact, the best broiled 
steaks are turned just as soon as the juice 
begins to drip, so as to retain all juice in 
the meat. 

Meat containing much connective tissue 
is not adapted to broiling, because it takes 
too long for this tissue to become gela- 
tinized. 

Steak broiled in a skillet, especially 
round steak which has been pounded to 
assist in breaking the connective tissue, is 
often first dipped in seasoned flour, which 
is rubbed well into it. The flour absorbs 
the meat juices so that none of them are 
lost. All meats broiled in skillets should 
be put into a very hot skillet and one sur- 
face seared, then should be turned so as 
to sear the other side. The skillet should 
be kept covered so as to retain the mois- 
ture. 

Boiling. In boiling meat, where the ob- 
ject is to eat the tissue itself, it should be 
put into hot water, that the albumin on 
the surface may be immediately coagu- 
lated and prevent the escape of the nutri- 
ents into the water. It is impossible to 
make a rich broth and to have a juicy, 
highly flavored piece of boiled meat at the 

195 



same time. Meat is best roasted or broiled 
when the meat tissue is to be eaten. 

The boiling cuts contain more connec- 
tive tissue, therefore they require a much 
longer time to cook in order to gelatinize 
this tissue. They are not as rich in pro- 
tein as the steaks. 

Meat soups, bouillons and broths con- 
tain very little nutriment, but they do con- 
tain the extractives, and the flavors in- 
crease the flow of digestive juices and 
stimulate the appetite. It is for this rea- 
son that soups are served before a meal 
rather than for a dessert; they insure 
a copious flow of gastric juice and saliva 
to act upon the crackers or toast eaten 
with the soup. Many mistake the extrac- 
tives and flavor for nourishment, feeling 
that the soups are an easy method of tak- 
ing food, but the best part of the nutriment 
remains in the meat or vegetables making 
the soup. 

Pot Roasts. In the case of a pot roast, 
or roast in a kettle, where it is desirable to 
use both the fibre of the meat and the juice, 
or gravy, it should be put into a little cold 
water and raised to about 180 degrees F., 
where it should be kept for some hours. 
The juices of the meat seep out in the 

196 



gravy. The extractives are simmered down 
and are again poured over the meat in the 
rich gravy. 

Frying. This is the least desirable 
method of cooking. Food cooked by put- 
ting a little grease into a frying pan, such 
as fried potatoes, mush, eggs, french toast, 
and griddle cakes, are more difficult of di- 
gestion than foods cooked by any other 
means, particularly where the fat is al- 
lowed to smoke. The fat is superheated; 
if a lighted match is placed near the smoke 
it will catch fire, showing that it is volatil- 
izing, or being reduced to a vapor. 

The extreme heat liberates fatty acids. 
This acrid fat soaks into the food and ren- 
ders it difficult of digestion. It is wise 
not to employ this method of cooking. 

The objection to frying does not hold so 
strongly in the case of vegetables, such as 
potatoes, if fried slowly in fat, that is not 
over heated, or to griddle cakes cooked 
slowly without smoke, or to foods immersed 
in grease (such as Saratoga chips, dough- 
nuts, french fried potatoes, etc.), as the 
large amount of fat does not permit it to 
get so heated. It does apply, however, if 
the fat is sufficiently heated to smoke. 

197 



The coating of vegetables and cereals 
with the hot fat prevents the necessary 
action of saliva upon the starch globules. 
As previously stated, most of the starches 
are digested in the mouth and the stomach, 
while the fats are not emulsified until they 
reach the intestines. 

The starch globules in cereals and vege- 
tables are in the form of cells, the covering 
of these cells being composed largely of 
nitrogenous matter. The protein is not 
acted upon by the saliva, and the nitrog- 
enous matter is largely digested in the 
stomach. It is more easily dissolved if it 
is broken or softened by cooking, so that 
the carbohydrates can come in contact with 
the saliva, but if encased in fried fat, the 
gastric juices cannot digest the protein 
covering and the saliva cannot reach the 
starch until the fat is emulsified in the in- 
testines. This means that wherever starch 
globules are surrounded with fat, the di- 
gestive ferments reach these globules with 
difficulty and fried foods must be digested 
mostly in the intestines. 

Fats are readily absorbed in their nat- 
ural condition, but when subject to extreme 
heat, as in frying, they are irritants. For 
this reason, eggs, poached, boiled or baked 
are more easily digested than fried. 

198 



Boiling, broiling and roasting are pref- 
erable to foods cooked in fats. 

One safe rule for the cook is, that it 
C f°C kmS l * s better to cook most foods too 
much than too little; overcooking is 
uncommon and harmless, while under- 
cooked foods are common and difficult of 
digestion. 

In partially cooked cereals, one does not 
know how much of the cooking has been 
done, but it is safe to cook all such foods 
at least as long as specified in the direc- 
tions. 

One reason why breakfast foods, such as 
rolled oats, are partially cooked, is because 
they keep longer. 

As has been stated, the nutrients of the 
grain are found inside the starch-bearing 
and other cells, and the walls of these cells 
are made of crude fiber, on which the di- 
gestive juices have little effect. Unless the 
cell walls are broken down, the nutrients 
can not come under the influence of the 
digestive juices until the digestive organs 
have expended material and energy in try- 
ing to get at them. Crushing the grain in 
mills, and making it still finer by thorough 
mastication breaks many of the cell walls, 
and the action of the saliva and other di- 

199 



gestive juices also disintegrates them more 
or less, but the heat of cooking accom- 
plishes the object much more thoroughly. 
The invisible moisture in the cells expands 
under the action of heat, and the cell walls 
burst. The water added in cooking also 
plays an important part in softening and 
rupturing them. Then, too, the cellulose 
itself may be changed by heat to more 
soluble form. Heat also makes the starch 
in the cells at least partially soluble, espec- 
ially when water is present. The solubil- 
ity of the protein is probably, as a rule, 
somewhat lessened by cooking, especially 
at higher temperatures. Long, slow cook- 
ing is therefore better, as it breaks down 
the crude fiber and changes the starch 
to soluble form without materially de- 
creasing the solubility of the protein. 

"In experiments made with rolled oats 
at the Minnesota Experiment Station, it 
appeared that cooking (four hours) did not 
make the starch much more soluble. How- 
ever, it so changed the physical structure 
of the grains that a given amount of diges- 
tive ferment could render much more of 
it soluble in a given time than when it was 
cooked for only half an hour. 

"On the basis of the results obtained, 
the difficulty commonly experienced in di- 

200 



gesting imperfectly cooked oatmeal was at- 
tributed to the large amounts of glutinous 
material which surrounds the starch grains 
and prevent their disintegration. When 
thoroughly cooked the protecting action of 
the mucilaginous protein is overcome, and 
the compound starch granules are suffi- 
ciently disintegrated to allow the digestive 
juices to act. In other words, the increased 
digestibility of the thoroughly cooked cer- 
eal is supposed to be largely due to a phys- 
ical change in the carbohydrates, which 
renders them more susceptible to the ac- 
tion of digestive juices/ ' 

Pastry. Pastry owes its harmful char- 
acter to the interference of fat as shown 
on page 198, with the proper solution of 
the starch, — at least such pastry as re- 
quires the mixing of flour with fat; the 
coating of these granules with fat prevents 
them from coming in contact with liquids ; 
the cells cannot absorb water, swell and 
burst so that they may dissolve. The 
fat does not furnish sufficient water for 
this and so coats the starch granules as to 
prevent the absorption of water in mixing, 
or of the saliva in mastication. This coat- 
ing of fat is not relieved until late in the 
process of digestion, or until the food 

201 



reaches the intestines. This same objec- 
tion applies to rich gravies, unless the flour 
be dissolved in water and heated before 
being mixed with the fats. The objection, 
therefore, is to such pastry as is made by 
mixing flour with fat, as in pie crust; it 
does not apply to most puddings. 

Heat, in cooking, causes a combustion of 
the carbonic acid gas and the effort of this 
gas to escape, as well as the steam occa- 
sioned by the water in the food, causes the 
bubbles. When beaten eggs are used, the 
albuminoids in the bubbles expand the 
walls, which stiffen with the heat and 
cause the substances containing eggs to 
be porous. 

Since the root vegetables contain a 

V°° Thf l ar S e proportion of carbohydrates, 

they should be well cooked, in 

order that the cells may be fully dissolved, 

and the crude fibre broken. 

Vegetables are best cooked in soft water, 
as lime or magnesia, the chemical ingre- 
dients which make water "hard", make the 
vegetables less soluble. 

Vegetables and fruits become contami- 
nated with the eggs of numerous parasites 
from the fertilizers used ; hence they should 
be thoroughly washed. 

202 



The objection to frying meats are 
equally strong in regard to vegetables. 
The coating of vegetables with the hot fat 
retards digestion, as shown on page 198. 

"In different countries opinions differ 
f°F m *f mar kedly regarding the relative whole- 

someness of raw and cooked fruit. 
The Germans use comparatively little raw 
fruit and consider it far less wholesome 
than cooked fruit. On the other hand, in 
the United States raw fruit of good qual- 
ity is considered extremely wholesome, and 
is used in very large quantities, being as 
much relished as cooked fruit, if indeed it 
is not preferred to it. It has been sug- 
gested that the European prejudice against 
raw fruit may be an unconscious protest 
against unsanitary methods of marketing 
or handling and the recognition of cooking 
as a practical method of preventing the 
spread of disease by fruit, accidentally 
soiled with fertilizers in the fields or with 
street dust. 

"As in the case with all vegetable foods, 
the heat of cooking breaks down the car- 
bohydrate walls of the cells which make up 
the fruit flesh, either because the moisture 
or other cell contents expand and rupture 
the walls or because the cell wall is itself 

203 



softened or dissolved. Texture, appear- 
ance, and flavor of fruit are materially 
modified by cooking, and, if thorough, it 
insures sterilization, as in the case of all 
other foods. The change in texture often 
has a practical advantage, since it implies 
the softening of the fruit flesh so that it 
is more palatable and may be more readily 
acted upon by the digestive juices. This is 
obviously of more importance with the 
fruits like the quince, which is so hard that 
it is unpalatable raw, than it is with soft 
fruits like strawberries. When fruits are 
cooked without the addition of water or 
other material, as is often the case in bak- 
ing apples, there is a loss of weight, owing 
to the evaporation of water, and the juice 
as it runs out carries some carbohydrates 
and other soluble constituents with it, but 
under ordinary household conditions this 
does not imply waste, as the juice which 
cooks out from fruits is usually eaten as 
well as the pulp. Cooking in water ex- 
tracts so little of the nutritive material 
present that such removal of nutrition is 
of no practical importance. 

"The idea is quite generally held that 
cooking fruit changes its acid content, acid 
being sometimes increased and sometimes 

204 



decreased by the cooking process. Kel- 
hofer showed that when gooseberries were 
cooked with sugar, the acid content was 
not materially changed, these results being 
in accord with his conclusions reached in 
earlier studies with other fruits. The 
sweeter taste of the cooked product he 
believed to be simply due to the fact that 
sugar masks the flavor of the acid. 

"It is often noted that cooked fruits, 
such as plums, seem much sourer than the 
raw fruit, and it has been suggested that 
either the acid was increased or the sugar 
was decreased by the cooking process. This 
problem was studied by Sutherst, and, in 
his opinion, the increased acid flavor is 
due to the fact that cooked fruit (goose- 
berries, currants, plums, etc.) usually con- 
tains the skin, which is commonly rejected 
if the fruit is eaten raw. The skin is more 
acid than the simpler carbohydrates united 
to form a complex carbohydrate. In some 
fruits, like the apple, where the jelly-yield- 
ing material must be extracted with hot 
water, the pectin is apparently united with 
cellulose as a part of the solid pulp. As 
shown by the investigations of Bigelow 
and Gore at the Bureau of Chemistry, 40 
per cent of the solid material of apple pulp 

205 



may be thus extracted with hot water, and 
consists of two carbohydrates, one of which 
is closely related to gum arabic. That 
such carbohydrates as these should yield 
a jelly is not surprising when we remember 
that they are similar to starch in their 
chemical nature, and, as every one knows, 
starch, though insoluble in cold water, 
yields when cooked with hot water a large 
proportion of paste, which jellies on cool- 
ing. 

"When fruits are used for making pies, 
puddings, etc., the nutritive value of the 
dish is, of course, increased by the addi- 
tion of flour, sugar, etc., and the dish as a 
whole may constitute a better balanced 
food than the fruit alone."* 



* C. F. L,angworthy, Ph. D. — In charge of Nutritive Inves- 
tigations of the United States Experiment Station. 



206 



DIETS 

As previously stated, the object of foods 
is to supply the needs of the body in build- 
ing new tissue in the growing child; in 
repairing tissue which the catabolic activ- 
ity of the body is constantly tearing down 
and eliminating ; and in supplying heat and 
energy. This heat and energy is not alone 
for muscular activity in exercise or move- 
ment; it must be borne in mind that the 
body is a busy workshop, or chemical lab- 
oratory, and heat and energy are needed 
in the constant metabolism of tearing down 
and rebuilding tissue and in the work of 
digestion and elimination. 

In this chapter, a few points given in the 
preceding pages are repeated for empha- 
sis. The proteins, represented in purest 
form in lean meat, build tissue and the car- 
bonaceous foods, starches, sugars and fats, 
supply the heat and energy. An excess of 
proteins, that is more than is needed for 
building and repair, is also used for heat 

207 



and energy; the waste products of the 
nitrogenous foods are broken down into 
carbon dioxid, sulphates, phosphates, and 
other nitrogenous compounds and excreted 
through the kidneys, skin, and the bile, 
while the waste product of carbonaceous 
foods is carbon dioxid alone and is excre- 
ted mostly through the lungs. 

Since the foods richest in protein are the 
most expensive, those who wish to keep 
down the cost of living, should provide, at 
most, no more protein than the system re- 
quires. The expensive meat may be elim- 
inated and proteins be supplied by eggs, 
milk, legumes, nuts and cereals. 

The most fundamental thing is to decide 
upon the amount of protein — two to four 
ounces, nearly a quarter of a pound a day 
— and then select a dietary which shall pro- 
vide this and also supply heat and energy 
sufficient for the day. If the diet is to in- 
clude meat, a goodly proportion of protein 
will be furnished in the lean meat. This 
will vary greatly with the different cuts of 
meat as shown on Table IV, page 128. 
If, as often happens, one does not care for 
fats, then the starches and sugars must 
provide the heat. If one craves sweets, 
less starches and fats are needed. 

208 



The normally healthy individual is more 
liable to supply too much protein than too 
little, even though he abstain from meat. 
Yet, as will be shown later, our strongest 
races, who have lent most to the progress 
of the world, live upon a mixed diet. 

If the diet is to include meat, it will con- 
sist of less bulk, because the protein is 
more condensed; for the same reason, if it 
includes animal products of eggs and milk 
and a fair proportion of legumes, it will 
be less bulky than a vegetable diet. This 
point is important for busy people, who 
eat their meals in a hurry and proceed at 
once to active, mental work. Those who 
engage in physical labor are much more 
likely to take a complete rest for a half 
hour, to an hour, after eating. The thinkers 
seldom rest, at least after a midday meal, 
and those who worry seldom relax the 
mental force during any waking hours. 

Where the system shows an excess of 
uric acid, the chances are that the individ- 
ual has not been living on a diet with too 
large a proportion of protein, but that he 
has been eating more than he requires of 
all kinds of foodstuffs. His system thus 
becomes weakened and he does not breathe 
deeply nor exercise sufficiently to oxidize 
and throw off the waste. Let it be recalled 

209 



here that the theory that rheumatism is 
caused by an excess of uric acid is dis- 
puted by the highest authorities. It is 
accompanied by uric acid, but not sup- 
posed to be caused by it. 

Every housewife, to intelligently select 
the daily menus for her family, needs a 
thorough knowledge of dietetics. She 
must understand the chemistry of food that 
she may know food values. The difficulty 
which confronts the housewife, is to pro- 
vide one meal suited to the needs, tastes, 
or idiosyncracies of various members of 
her household. Peculiarities of taste, un- 
less these peculiarities have been intelli- 
gently acquired, may result in digestive 
disturbances. As an illustration : one may 
cultivate a dislike for meat, milk, or eggs, 
as is often the case, and the proteins for 
the family being largely supplied by these, 
the individual is eating too much of 
starches and sugars and not sufficient pro- 
tein, — legumes, nuts, etc., not being pro- 
vided for one member. Such an one's 
blood becomes impoverished and she be- 
comes anaemic. 

The relief lies in cultivating a taste for 
blood building foods. Foods which are 
forced down, with a mind arrayed against 

210 



them, do not digest as readily, because the 
displeasure does not incite the flow of gas- 
tric juices. One fortunate provision of 
nature lies in the ability to cultivate a taste 
for any food. Likes and dislikes are 
largely mental. There are certain foods 
which continuously disagree and they 
should be avoided ; but many abstain from 
wholesome food because it has disagreed 
a few times. It may be that it was not the 
particular food but the weakness of the 
stomach at this time. Any food fails of 
prompt digestion when the nerves control- 
ling the stomach are weak. 

Many foods disagree at certain times be- 
cause of the particular conditions regulat- 
ing the secretion of digestive juices. Where 
this condition has continued for some time 
it becomes chronic and a special diet is re- 
quired, together with special exercises to 
bring a better blood supply to stomach and 
intestines and to regulate the nerves con- 
trolling them. 

Dr. W. S. Hall estimates that the 
average man at light work requires, 
each day, 106.8 grams of protein* 
57.97 grams of fat 
398.84 grams of carbohydrates 

* For table of weights see Appendix. 
211 



These elements, in proper proportions, 
may be gained through many food combi- 
nations. He gives the following: 

Bread 1 lb. 

Lean Meat 1/2 lb. 

Oysters 1/2 lb. 

Cocoa 1 oz. 

Milk 4 oz. 

Sugar 1 oz. 

Butter 1/2 oz. 

A medium sized man at out of door work, 
fully oxidizes all waste of the system and 
he requires a higher protein diet, — 125 
grams. In such event he does not require 
so much starch and sugar. If on the other 
hand he were to take but 106.8 grams of 
protein, as above, he would require more 
carbohydrates. One working, or exercis- 
ing in the fresh air, breathes more deeply 
and oxidizes and eliminates more waste, 
hence he has a better appetite, which is 
simply the call of nature for a re-supply 
of the waste. 

In active work, one also liberates more 
heat, thus more fat, starches, and sugar 
are required for the re-supply. If one has 
an excess of starch (glycogen) stored in 
the liver, or an excess of fat about the 

212 



tissues, this excess is called upon to supply 
the heat and energy when the fats and car- 
bohydrates daily consumed are not suffi- 
cient for the day's demand. This is the 
principle of reduction of flesh. 

It is interesting to note that habits of 
combining foods are unconsciously based 
upon dietetic principles. Meats rich in 
protein are served with potatoes, or with 
rice, both of which are rich in starch. 
Bread, containing little fat, is served with 
butter. Beans, containing little fat, are 
cooked with pork. Starchy foods of all 
kinds are served with butter or cream. 
Macaroni, which is rich in starch, makes a 
well balanced food cooked with cheese. 

Pork and beans, 

bread and butter, 

bread and milk, 

chicken and rice, 

macaroni and cheese, 

poached eggs on toast, and 

custards, form balanced dishes. 

A knowledge of such combinations is 
important when one must eat a hasty 
luncheon and wishes to supply the demands 
of the body in the least time, giving the 
least thought to the selection; but hasty 

213 



luncheons, with the mind concentrated 
upon other things, are to be strongly con- 
demned. The mind must be relaxed and 
directed to pleasant themes during a meal 
or the nerves to the vital organs will be 
held too tense to permit a free secretion of 
digestive juices. Chronic indigestion is 
sure to result from this practice. Dinner, 
or the hearty meal at night, rather than at 
noon, is preferable for the business or pro- 
fessional man or woman, because the cares 
of the day are over and the brain force 
relaxes. The vital forces are not detracted 
from the work of digestion. 

Experiments in the quantity of food act- 
ually required for body needs, made by 
Prof. E. H. Chittenden of the Sheffield Sci- 
entific School, Yale University, have estab- 
lished, beyond doubt, the fact that the 
average individual consumes very much 
more food than the system requires. In 
fact, most tables of food requirements, in 
previous books on dietetics, have been 
heavy. 

Prof. Chittenden especially established 
the fact that the average person consumes 
more protein than is necessary to maintain 
a nitrogenous balance. It was formerly 
held that the average daily metabolism and 
excretion of nitrogen through the kidneys 

214 



was 16 grams, or about 100 grams of pro- 
tein or albuminoid food. Prof. Chitten- 
den's tests, covering a period of six 
months, show an average daily excretion 
of 5.86 grams of nitrogen, or a little less 
than one-third of that formerly accepted 
as necessary; 5.86 grams of nitrogen cor- 
responds to 36.62 grams of protein or 
albuminoid food. 

Prof. Chittenden's experiments of the 
foodstuffs actually required by three 
groups of men, one group of United States 
soldiers, a group from the Yale College 
athletic team, and a group of college pro- 
fessors, all showed that the men retained 
full strength, with a higher degree of phy- 
sical and mental efficiency, when the body 
was not supplied with more protein than 
was liberated by metabolic activity, and 
when the quantity of carbonaceous food 
was regulated to the actual requirement to 
retain hody heat and furnish energy. 

It may be well to call attention here to 
the fact that the food elements, called upon 
for work, are not from those foods just 
consumed or digested, but from those eaten 
a day or two previous, which have been 
assimilated in the muscular tissues. 

In selecting a diet, the individual must 
be considered as to age, sex and physical 

215 



condition, also whether active in indoor or 
outdoor work, and whether he or she 
breathes deeply, so as to take plenty of 
fresh air into the lungs. 

The following tables, published through 
the courtesy of Dr. W. S. Hall, give the 
rations for different conditions. 



TABLE XI. 

Rations for Different Conditions. 





Protoir.s 


00 


Carbo- 
hydrates 


O x 


Conditions 


1 


A 
3 

5 


* 
3 


A 
at 

3 


1*3 


Man at light indoor work 


60 


100 


60 390 


450 


2764 


Man at light outdoor work 


60 


100 


100 


400 


460 


2940 


Man at moderate outdoor 














work 


75 


125 


125 


450 


500 


3475 


Man at hard outdoor work 


100 


150 


150 1 500 


550 


4000 


Man at very hard outdoor 






1 






winter work 


125 


180 


200 1 600 


650 


4592 


U. S. Arniy rations 


64 


106 


280 1 460 1 540 


4896-5032 


U. S. Navy rations 




143 


292| 557|.... 


5545 


Football team (old regime) 




181 


292] 557| 


5697 


College football team (new) 


125 


125 


125| 500 


3675 



TABLE XII. 

Rations Varied for Sex and Age. 





Proteins 


03 

"S 

ft 


Carbo- 
hydrates 


5- 

3 


Variations 
of Sex and Age 


o 

3 


A 

s 


* 

o 


A 

H 

E 


1° 


Children, two to six 


36 


70 


40 


250] 325 


1520-1956 


Children, six to fifteen 


50 


75 


45 


325 1 350 


1923-3123 


Women, with light exercise 


50 


80 


80 


300 330 


2273 


Women, at moderate work 


60 


1 92 


80 


400 ( 432 


2720 


Aged women 


50 


80 


50 


270 1 300 


1870 


Aged men 


50 


100 


400 


300 1 350 


2258 



216 



The unit of measurement for the calor- 
ies of energy is the amount of heat re- 
quired to raise the temperature of one kilo- 
gram of energy to 1° centigrade. 

In estimating the number of calories of 
energy given off by the different foods, Dr. 
Hall represents 

1 gram of carbohydrates as 4.0 calories 
" " " fats " 9.4 

" " " proteins "4.0 

To determine the relative energy which 
a food represents, it is only necessary to 
multiply the number of grams of protein 
in that food by 4, the fat by 9.4 and the 
carbohydrates by 4, and add the results. 
Thus according to the food required for 
the average man at light work given on 
page 211. 

106.8 grams of proteins x4 = 427.20 calories of energy 

57.97 " " fat x 9.4 = 544.94 
398.84 " " carbohydrates x 4 = 1595.36 

2567.51 — the calories of 
energy required for the average man at light work. 

Dr. Chittenden's experiments show that 
a man leading a very active life, and above 
the average in body weight, can maintain 
his body in equilibrium indefinitely with a 
daily intake of 36 to 40 grams of protein, 
or albuminoid food, and with a total fuel 
value of 1600 calories. Authorities, how- 

217 



ever differ upon the amount of food re- 
quired. 

Dr. Hall suggests 106 grams of protein 

Banke suggests 100 grams of protein 

Hultgren and Landergren suggests 134 grams of protein 

Schmidt suggests 105 grams of protein 

Forster and Moleschott suggests 130 grams of protein 

Atwater suggests 125 grams of protein 

In order to bring oneself to as limited 
a diet as Prof. Chittenden's men followed, 
however, it would be necessary to have all 
food weighed so as to be sure of the correct 
proportions; otherwise the actual needs 
would not be supplied and the body would 
suffer. A wise provision of nature enables 
the body to throw off an excess of food 
above the body needs without injury, with- 
in limitations; but, as stated, there is no 
doubt that the average person exceeds 
these limits, exhausting the digestive or- 
gans and loading the system with more 
than it can eliminate; the capacity for 
mental work is restricted, and the whole 
system suffers. 

Prof. Chittenden's experiments have 
been a wonderful revelation to dietitians 
and scientists. They have demonstrated 
beyond doubt that the average person eats 
much more than the system requires and 
thus overworks the digestive organs. 

218 



Mixed Diet From the fact that only from two 
versus a to four ounces of nitrogenous 

Vegetable food is required to rebuild daily 
Diet tissue waste, it is apparent that 

this amount can readily be supplied from 
the vegetable kingdom, since nuts, legumes, 
and cereals are rich in proteins ; yet there 
is a question whether a purely vegetable 
diet is productive of the highest physical 
and mental development. Natives of tropi- 
cal climates live upon vegetables, fruits, 
and nuts, and it may be purely accidental 
or be due to climatic or other conditions, 
that these nations have not been those who 
have made the greatest progress in the 
world. Neither have the Eskimos, who live 
almost entirely upon meat, attained the 
highest development. The greatest prog- 
ress and development, both as nations and 
as individuals, have been made by inhabi- 
tants of temperate climates, who have lived 
upon a mixed diet of meat, eggs, milk, 
grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. They 
have shown more creative force, which 
means reserve strength. 

The Eskimo has demonstrated, however, 
that an entire meat diet supplies all physi- 
cal needs : *he meat tissue providing growth 
and repair and the fat supplying all of the 
carbonaceous elements. The fat, as pre- 

219 



viously stated, yields more heat than 
starches and sugars, and Nature provides 
this heat for climates where most warmth 
is required. It may be the natural reason 
why natives of warm climates have formed 
the habit of using vegetables and grains 
for their heat and energy rather than meat. 
It is also a natural reason why man, in 
temperate climates, eats more meat in 
winter than in summer. 

An unperverted, natural instinct will al- 
ways be found to have a sound physiologi- 
cal basis. For example, — if, by reason of 
some digestive disturbance, one has be- 
come emaciated, all of the fat having been 
consumed, and the cause of the disturbance 
is removed by an operation or otherwise, 
one is seized with an almost insatiable de- 
sire for fat, often eating large chunks of 
the fat of meat or large quantities of but- 
ter or cream at a meal. When obstructions 
are removed, Nature makes immediate ef- 
fort to adjust her forces. 

Those who object to eating meat should 
study carefully and know that the proper 
proportion of protein is supplied with each 
day's rations. The legumes — peas, beans, 
nuts, and grains — must be supplied with 
the vegetables. "While the wheat kernel 
contains twelve per cent of protein, the 

220 



white flour does not contain as large a per- 
centage and it will be noted by reference 
to Tables II and III, that the majority of 
fruits and vegetables contain little nitrog- 
enous substance. 

Unless the whole of the grain and the 
legumes form a goodly proportion of the 
diet the danger is in consuming too large 
a bulk of waste and too much starch in a 
purely vegetable diet. In a vegetarian diet, 
one is liable to eat too freely of cereals; 
as a result, the liver becomes clogged and 
torpid and the stomach and intestines are 
deranged and rendered incapable of full 
digestion and absorption. The clogged 
system refuses to assimilate more food. 

It follows, therefore, that, unless one is 
a thorough student of dietetics, the mixed 
diet is by far the safest to follow. One 
can better run short of starch or fat in one 
day's rations than to be short of protein, 
because if the two to four ounces daily 
requirement is not provided the tissues 
are consumed and the blood is impover- 
ished. It is a rare condition in which a 
reserve of glycogen and fat is not stored 
in the system. On the other hand an ex- 
cess of nitrogenous foods calls for a very 
active circulation and plenty of oxygen in 
the system. 

221 



It has been held that the vegetarian has 
a clearer brain, and, if this be true, it may 
be due to the fact that he is not eating too 
much and thus his system is not over- 
loaded. 

Experience, however, does not prove that 
he has greater mental, physical, and moral 
power and efficiency. One 's brain, in fast- 
ing, is at first clear and forceful, but the 
reason is unbalanced if the fast be too pro- 
longed. 

A complete diet may be selected without 
animal flesh, but including animal products 
of eggs, milk, cream, and butter, together 
ivith vegetables, fruits, cereals, and nuts, 
yet if the vegetable diet be selected the 
legumes, the whole of the grains, and nuts 
must be given their share in each day's ra- 
tions, 



222 



MENUS 

Before giving any menus, let me first of 
all impress upon the reader the importance 
of eating slowly, of good cheer, of light 
conversation during a meal, and of thor- 
oughly masticating the food. Remember it 
is the food assimilated, which nourishes. 

The following menus allow sufficient 
food for average conditions, when the vital 
organs are normal. 

Fruit, as previously stated, contains a 
very small quantity of nutrition. It is more 
valuable for its diuretic effect; and to 
stimulate the appetite; for this reason it 
may well be eaten before a meal. 

The citrous fruits tend to neutralize too 
strong acids of the blood, increasing its 
alkalinity. For this reason, also, they are 
best before a meal, particularly before 
breakfast ; they have a more laxative and 
cleansing effect if eaten before the other 
food. The custom has been, however, to 



eat fruits after dinner for dessert and they 
are so given on the following menus. 

The following diet is for one who 

OTCiTalSn haS attained ' ful1 S rowth and who 
p walks a few blocks a day. The 

diet may seem light, but where one is sit- 
ting indoor most of the time, and has little 
outdoor exercise, less waste protein is oxi- 
dized and less starch, fat and sugar are 
required for heat and energy. If too much 
carbonaceous food is consumed, one will 
store up too much and become too large. 
If more protein is consumed than is oxi- 
dized and eliminated one is liable to neu- 
ralgic or rheumatic difficulties. 

Every person at sedentary employment 
should, without fail, exercise each day as 
suggested on pages 104 to 107. 

In nearly all of the following menus cof- 
fee and tea have been omitted because, as 
before stated, they are not foods, but stim- 
ulants and the caffein and thein may over- 
stimulate the nerves and the heart. They 
retard digestion. Some other warm drink 
should be substituted where there is di- 
gestive disturbance, or where the diges- 
tion is weak. They should never at any 
time be used strong. They are used for 
their pleasing flavor and where one Has 

224 



difficulty in governing the desire for them, 
sufficient may be used to flavor the water. 
The following is a suggestive diet for 
one who is not active : 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit, 

Cereal or Toast Coffee, 

Dry toast (two slices), or two muffins or two 
gems. 

If one has taken brisk exercise, as sug- 
gested above, or is to take a brisk walk of 
a mile or two, a dish of oatmeal or some 
other cereal with cream and sugar, may be 
addled. 

LUNCH 

Creamed soup, or puree with crackers or dry toast. 
Sandwich and fruit, or two slices of bread and butter 

with fruit. 
Cup of custard or one piece of cake and milk or two 

cookies. 
A glass of milk or buttermilk. 
If puree of peas or beans is used the sandwich may 

be omitted and one slice of bread is sufficient. 

DINNER 

Meat, gravy, potatoes or rice. 

One vegetable, green peas, green beans, cauliflower, 

greens, corn. (Do not use dried baked beans or 

dried peas with lean meat.) 
Salad or fruit. 
Pudding, easily digested, such as bread, rice, tapioca, 

cornstarch or chocolate. 

After one year, the child should be 

rvnH ° ung given solid food very gradually to 

develop his digestive functions as 

well as his teeth. The ferment, which 

225 



enables hirn to digest starches is begin- 
ning to form, and he needs some cereal. 
A piece of dry toast or a dry cracker will 
do. The year old child may also begin to 
drink cow's milk. One or two glasses a 
day may be given, until the child is at least 
thirteen or fourteen years old. 

The child must build muscle, bone and 
sinew and more protein is required as soon 
as he begins to walk. Milk, eggs and cer- 
eals will furnish this. The heavier protein 
diet is best given at eighteen months to 
two years, in eggs, cooked soft. These soft 
cooked eggs are best when mixed with 
broken, dry toast or broken crackers, be- 
cause if dry food is served with them, they 
will be better masticated, hence more sa- 
liva be mixed with them. The habit of 
thorough mastication should be cultivated 
at this period. 

Oatmeal, thoroughly cooked, and shred- 
ded wheat, with cream and sugar, ripe 
fruit, bread and butter, milk, soft cooked 
eggs (poached, baked or boiled) constitute 
a rational diet. 

If the child is hungry between meals, he 
should be fed at a regular period, midway 
between breakfast and luncheon and be- 
tween luncheon and the evening meal. The 
food should be dry (toast or a dry cracker) 



to require thorough and slow mastication. 

Many object to "piecing' ' between 
meals, but if this piecing be done at hours 
as regular as his meal hour, and the food 
be dry and well masticated, it will readily 
digest and will not interfere with his meals. 
The growing child needs more frequent 
meals than the adult. His stomach is not 
so large, he is active in out door exercise, 
and eliminates waste freely. He also re- 
quires much heat and energy. The active 
child at out-door play uses almost as much 
energy as the laboring man. 

The growing child craves sweets. 

Candy should not be taken at any time 
during the day, because the digestive sys- 
tem needs rest. It is quickly converted 
into heat and is best eaten immediately fol- 
lowing a meal. Sugar may be spread upon 
bread for the four o'clock lunch or a little 
candy may be eaten at this time. Two to 
three pieces of candy an inch square are 
sufficient. 

This period begins with a girl, 
The Developing, USU ally near the thirteenth 
ortheAdoles- an( j ith b ab(mt 

cent Period i ] mi . V • 

fourteen. There is no time in 

life when a mother needs to be so watch- 
ful of the diet. Growth is very rapid and 

227 



much easily digested protein is needed to 
build tissue, particularly to build tlie tis- 
sue of red corpuscles. 

The red meats, eggs, spinach and all 
kinds of greens are important articles of 
diet at this time, because of the iron which 
they contain. They should be supplied 
freely, particularly for developing girls, 
or they may otherwise be inclined to 
anaemia, at this time. Butter and milk 
are valuable and regular exercises with 
deep breathing are imperative. 

BREAKFAST. 

Fruit. 

Oatmeal or some other cereal, well cooked, with 

cream and sugar. 
One egg, boiled, poached or baked (cooked soft), or 

chipped beef in cream gravy. 
Cereal coffee, toast coffee or hot water with cream 

and sugar. 
Buttered toast, shredded wheat biscuit or triscuit. 

LUNCH 

Cream soup, bean soup, or puree with crackers or 

dry toast. 
Bread and butter. 
Fruit and cake, or rice pudding, or bread, tapioca, 

cocoanut or cereal pudding of any kind, or a cup 

of custard. 

DINNER 
An ample portion of meat, (preferably red meat). 
Potatoes. 
Vegetables, preferably spinach, or greens of some 

kinds, or beets boiled with the tops. 
Graham bread. 
Fruit with triscuit, graham bread toasted or graham 

wafers. 
Cand}'. (small quantity) 

228 



A growing child is usually hungry upon 
returning from school, and it is well to 
take a little easily digested food regularly 
but not sufficient to destroy the appetite 
for the evening meal. An egg lemonade 
is easily digested and satisfying. If active 
and exercising freely, craving for sweets 
should be gratified, to a limited extent. 

The young man, active in athletics, 
Athl t nee ds the same food as given for the 

adolescent, yet more in quantity. 
He needs to drink water before his train- 
ing and at rest periods during the game. 
If he is too fat, he should train off the 
superfluous amount by exercise and by 
judiciously abstaining from much sugars, 
starches and fats. Diets for reductions 
must be governed by the condition of the 
kidneys and the digestive organs. 

Deep breathing habits are imperative 
and he must be careful not to overtax lungs 
or heart. 

The man engaged in muscular work 
M requires plenty of food; he can di- 

gest foods which the professional 
or business man, or the man of sedentary 
habits, cannot. He will probably be able 
to drink coffee and tea without any dis- 

229 



turbance to nerves or to digestion. In his 
muscular work lie liberates the waste 
freely and needs fats, starches and sugars 
to supply the heat and energy. This is 
especially true of men who work in the 
fresh air; the muscular action liberates 
waste and heat and the full breathing 
freely oxidizes the waste, putting it in con- 
dition to be excreted through lungs, skin, 
kidneys and intestines. 

He should have more meat, eggs and 
nitrogenous foods, and he also needs more 
carbonaceous foods to supply heat and en- 
ergy. Three hearty meals a day are neces- 
sary. 

His muscular movements of the trunk 
keeps the circulation forceful and the vital 
organs strong so that his diet may be al- 
most as heavy as that of the foot-ball 
player. Meat or eggs, two or even three 
times a day, with tea or coffee, and even 
pie may be eaten with impunity. He needs 
a good nourishing breakfast of bacon and 
eggs or meat, also potatoes, or a liberal 
allowance of bread and butter, corn bread, 
muffins, etc. 

The term aged is not governed en- 
e A S ed tirely by years. If one stops physi- 
cal and mental activity, the vital forces 

230 



recede, muscles and vital organs become 
weak and inactive, the waste of the system 
is not fully relieved and such a man at 
fifty-five is physically and mentally older 
than the man who is in active business or 
is taking daily vigorous exercise, at sev- 
enty or eighty. The latter may follow the 
same diet which he follows at fifty, while 
the former should follow the diet of the old 
man who has stopped active work. It 
should be simple, easily digested and nu- 
tritious, and should be reduced in quantity. 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal, well cooked, with cream or sugar. Oatmeal 

is preferred because it is laxative. 
One egg, boiled, poached or baked (soft). 
One slice of toast. 
Cereal coffee. 

DINNER 

Bouillon or soup. 
Meat — small portion. 
Potato (preferably baked). 
Vegetable. 

Cup custard, or bread, rice or cornmeal pudding 
with lemon cream sauce. 

SUPPER 

Soup. 

Bread and butter. 

Stewed fruit. 

Tea. 

An old person needs little meat. The 
food should be masticated to a pulp, Tea 
and coffee are best omitted, but if used to 

231 



tea, one small cup, prepared by turning 
boiling water on the leaves and served im- 
mediately, may be included. The tea should 
not be strong and, for reasons given on 
page 183, should never be allowed to 
steep. 

If inclined to constipation, or if the kid- 
neys are inactive, grapes or an apple, or 
some fruit may be eaten just before re- 
tiring. 



*3* 



MENUS FOR ABNORMAL 
CONDITIONS. 

Where the body is not in normal condi- 
tion, because elements are lacking in the 
blood, these elements must be supplied in 
larger proportions with the food, and the 
case is one for a food chemist, or for one 
who has made food conditions a study. 
When medical colleges broaden their cur- 
riculum, or physicians employ methods 
other than medicine and the knife, for cor- 
rection of physical ailments, the relief will 
be with this profession. If they do not, 
professional schools for the education of 
the physical culturist and food special- 
ists, for the correction of deranged condi- 
tions of the system, due to poor circulation 
and abnormal blood conditions, which have 
so long been controlled entirely through 
medicine, will spring up and replace much 
of the correction previously left entirely 
to the medical fraternity. 

233 



In case of an abnormal condition, the 
food must be regulated according to the 
case. This also applies to a diet where one 
carries an abnormal amount of fat. 

In the early stage of various diseases, 
where toxins are hoarded in the system, it 
is often advisable to abstain from food for 
from one to three days, according to condi- 
tions. As previously stated, where the 
system is not properly eliminating the 
waste, it is wise to abstain from food, to 
take brisk exercise, breathe deeply and 
drink freely of water, until the waste is 
eliminated. A laxative is also desirable. 

The above suggestions are for abnormal 
conditions. To keep the body in health, 
eat at regular periods. 

It is the purpose here to give diets for 
chronic cases, which the average person 
attempts to regulate without a physician 
in regular attendance. 

The foundation education in regard to 
foods, belongs in the public schools. How 
many lives are lost on account of the lack 
of knowledge of food values will never be 
known. 

The system readily excretes an excess of 
vegetable products, and, as a rule, no acute 
difficulties result; however, such chronic 
difficulties, as Constipation, Torpid Liver 

234 



and Indigestion, frequently result from an 
excess of starch, over that consumed in 
energy. On account of the readiness to 
putrefaction of protein products, care 
should be taken not to consume these in too 
great proportion. 

Broadly speaking, a diet largely of pro- 
tein, which is digested in the stomach, rests 
the intestines, and a diet largely of carbo- 
hydrates, rests the stomach, because the 
gastric juice is not active in starch diges- 
tion. In case sufficient saliva is not swal- 
lowed with the food to digest the starches 
and sugars in the stomach they are passed 
into the intestines for digestion. In the 
absence of sufficient saliva, water with the 
food is desirable to dissolve the starches, 
that they may more readily pass the 
pylorus. 

A study of the habitual taste for foods, 
in connection with the physical ailments of 
eighteen thousand women, shows that by 
the constituents in the blood, and the con- 
dition of the different organs of the diges- 
tive system, one can usually determine 
which food the individual has formed a 
habit of eating, because the blood will show 
a lack of the elements which that patient 
has denied himself on account of his likes 
and dislikes. 

235 



It is necessary to change the mental atti- 
tude toward certain foods before the sys- 
tem will assimilate them; thus a taste for 
the foods which the body requires should 
be cultivated. 

Every mother, with growing children, 
should be a thorough student of the chem- 
istry of food. If the child's bones do not 
grow to sufficient size and strength, care in 
the selection of foods, rich in proteins, 
lime, magnesium and phosphates, may 
correct it. Such a child should have meat, 
whole wheat bread and eggs. 

Where the child stores up too much fat, 
care in the amount of exercise, and of oxy- 
gen consumed, as well as the regulation of 
diet, are of vital importance. If one is thin 
and undernourished, chemical analysis of 
the contents of stomach, intestines and kid- 
neys should be made, the nerves be rested 
and proper food, exercise and breathing 
should accompany medical treatment, if 
medicine is needed. 

Eegular exercise and deep breath- 
Anaemia ^ n g are f u Hy as important as the 

regulation of diet for the anaemic. In 
anaemia the red blood corpuscles are lack- 
ing, or there is not sufficient blood. The 
red corpuscles not being sufficient in nuni- 

236 



ber to carry the necessary quantity of oxy- 
gen to the tissues to oxidize the waste, the 
system becomes clogged with waste, which 
affects the nerves and brain cells. The 
patient is tired and disinclined to exercise, 
thus the decreased number of red corpus- 
cles are not kept in forceful circulation and 
the carbonic acid gas is not freely thrown 
off by the lungs; this further aggravates 
the condition. 

Pus formation, in abscesses, are frequent 
in anaemic cases. 

There is little desire for food when the 
system is clogged, and there is little use in 
forcing food. 

The red corpuscles are made in the red 
marrow of the bones and free action of 
the joints is desirable. 

The initial work, therefore in the correc- 
tion of anaemia, lies in brisk, every day 
exercise and deep breathing of fresh air. 
Such exercise should be intelligently di- 
rected to the joints and to the vital organs, 
particularly to the liver, that it may be 
kept in normal condition to break down the 
protein waste. The windows at night 
should admit of a good circulation of air 
through the sleeping room. These habits 
being established, the diet should consist 
of foods containing iron, such as red meat, 

237 



eggs and the green leaves of vegetables. 
Milk sipped slowly and a free use of butter 
are desirable. 

It will usually be found that the anaemic 
individual has no taste for vegetables con- 
taining iron, or for meats rich in albumi- 
noids, — or, that these foods have been 
denied because of their scarcity ; therefore, 
the elements necessary for red blood cor- 
puscles have been deficient. 

The following is a suggestive diet : 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit, in plenty. 

Two eggs, soft boiled, poached or baked. 

Cereal coffee or cambric tea. 

Toast, graham bread or graham or corn muffins. 

MIDDLE OF THE FORENOON 

Lemonade with spoonful of beef juice (not beef ex- 
tract) or with a beaten tgg. 

LUNCH 

Split pea or bean soup with dry toast. 

Fruit and nut salad (no vinegar). 

Fruit, fresh or stewed. 

Cake. 

Glass of milk. 

MIDDLE OF AFTERNOON 

Egg lemonade or eggnog. 

DINNER 

Bouillon. 

Tenderloin steak or lamb chops. 

Baked potato. 

Spinach, beet or dandelion greens. 

Custard, fruit gelatin, or cornstarch pudding, or rice 

with lemon cream sauce. 
Glass milk. 

238 



If the patient still has no appetite, more 
exercise, deep breathing and abstinence 
from all food for a day or two are desir- 
able. This will give the system a chance 
to clear itself of waste and when the waste 
is relieved through exercise and diet the 
desire for food will assert itself. 

Indigestion or Dyspepsia is the 
Indigestion broad term commonly applied to 
Dvs ia most chronic stomach and intes- 
tinal difficulties — due, not to struc- 
tural disease, but to their being incapable 
of normally performing their functions in 
digesting ordinary foods. The term in- 
cludes troubles arising from so many dif- 
ferent causes that the cause must be de- 
termined and remedied before definite re- 
sults can be attained through diet. 

Most chronic cases are due to improper 
hygiene, — such as irregular meals; over 
eating ; insufficient mastication ; wrong 
choice of foods ; or to a general run down 
condition, with a weakness of muscles of 
the stomach, due to insufficient blood sup- 
ply; or to a weakened or over-strenuous 
condition of nerves controlling the stom- 
ach. 

239 



Indigestion is usually accompanied by 
constipation, or by irregular action of the 
intestines. 

Plenty of fresh air, and exercise, di- 
rected definitely to muscles and nerves of 
the stomach, that it may be strengthened 
by a better blood supply, as well as exer- 
cises and deep breathing to build up the 
general health, should be systematically 
followed. 

Easily digested food, well masticated, 
and regular meals served daintily, with 
following of above directions, will gradu- 
ally regulate digestion. 

Without doubt, the intelligent medical 
treatment of stomach difficulties in the 
future will be directed by a chemical analy- 
sis of the stomach contents. If the stom- 
ach is not secreting normal proportions of 
pepsin or hydrochloric acid, the deficiency 
can be regulated. The chemical analysis 
of the gastric secretions will alone deter- 
mine what elements are lacking. As stated 
above, the permanent relief must lie in 
gaining a good circulation of blood through 
the entire body and through the stomach, 
that it may be strengthened and thus en- 
abled to secrete these elements in proper 
proportions. 

240 



Many cases of stomach difficulty are due 
to the condition of the nerves. 

Nervous Indigestion is due to the gen- 
eral nerve condition. In such cases the 
entire nervous system should be regulated 
through exercise, breathing, relaxation and 
a change of thought. Physicians usually 
recommend change of scene to direct 
change of thought. 

The diet should be light and laxative 
and low in protein. Cream soup, bread 
and milk, crackers and milk, custards, egg 
lemonade, and gruels, furnish an easily di- 
gested list. No tea, coffee, very little meat 
and no fried food. Where the walls of the 
stomach are weak and distended, light food 
six times a day is preferable to a hearty 
meal, which distends the stomach walls. 

Where a loss of weight occurs, it usually 
indicates a failure to assimilate a sufficient 
amount of food, rather than a failure to 
eat sufficient. A good circulation, partic- 
ularly through the vital organs, deep 
full breathing of fresh air, and regular 
and complete rest periods, should be 
observed. Usually a dietitian, or a physi- 
cian, is not called in chronic cases until the 
condition has prevailed for so long that 
other complications have set in and the 

241 



patient has lost muck flesh. It takes 
months to pull the system down and it 
takes months of following of proper hy- 
giene to build it up. 

Gastritis or Catarrh of the Stomach involv- 
ing an inflammation of the mucous lining 
of the stomach, is a most common phase 
of indigestion. In acute cases the phy- 
sician is called at once. He can treat 
the case in its initial stages and bring about 
a much more rapid recovery. 

Acute Gastritis is accompanied by nau- 
sea and vomiting and the patient should 
rest from all food and drink for two days. 
If the mouth is dry, water or ice may be 
given frequently and held in the mouth, 
but not swallowed. 

After two days rest, begin the nourish- 
ment with water and a small portion of 
liquid food (not over two ounces) every 
two hours. Toast tea, made by pouring 
hot water over toast, oatmeal, or barley 
gruel (thoroughly strained so that no 
coarse matter may irritate the stomach), 
limewater and milk, and egg lemonade are 
easily digested foods to begin to eat. In- 
crease the quantity the fourth day and 
lengthen the time between feedings to 

242 



three hours. Gradually increase the diet 
by semi-liquid food, soft boiled eggs, 
moistened toast, raw oysters, etc., slowly 
returning to the regular bill of fare. 

Avoid, as you do so, any food difficult 
of digestion and any vegetable containing 
coarse fibre. Tea, coffee, pickles, and alco- 
holic drinks should be avoided. 

Chronic Gastritis is accompanied with 
a thickening of the mucous lining of the 
stomach. It is usually caused by pro- 
longed use of irritating foods and the regu- 
lation of the diet is of utmost importance. 
Alcohol is a common cause. The difficulty 
begins gradually and the relief must like- 
wise be gradual. 

The stomach needs water. If the drink- 
ing of water causes nausea it is well to 
wash it out with a stomach pump each 
morning before breakfast. 

If not convenient to use the stomach 
pump the washing may be accomplished by 
drinking two glasses of water at least an 
hour before breakfast, followed by stomach 
exercises, to cause a regurgitation of the 
water through the stomach. This will be 
uncomfortable at first, with a very full feel- 
ing and one may begin by drinking one 
glass, followed by stomach exercises, grad- 

243 



ually taking another glass within a half 
hour of the first. This, with the exercises, 
will wash out the mucus. In many cases as 
much as a pint of slimy mucus collects in 
the stomach during the night. Where the 
stomach cleansing is impossible, in above 
manner, the stomach tube should be used. 

Chronic gastritis, in any of its phases, is 
frequently accompanied by constipation, 
and the diet should be so selected as to be 
as laxative as possible, without irritating 
the lining of the stomach. The liquid diet 
assists the intestines, to a certain extent, 
particularly if the stomach be cleansed by 
the water in the morning, as indicated 
under Mucous Gastritis below. 

Fruit in the morning and just before re- 
tiring aid the intestines. Two prunes 
chopped up with one fig or a bunch of 
grapes or an apple just before retiring as- 
sist the action of the intestines and the 
kidneys. 

Almost all fruits contain acid, which in- 
creases peristalsis, and the resultant flow 
of gastric juice. Cooked pears, stewed or 
baked apples, prunes and dates are mild 
fruits which may be used if they agree with 
the patient. The juice of an orange upon 
first arising may be used, except in case 

244 



of a diminution, or absence, of hydro- 
chloric acid 

Peptonized milk is an excellent food 
both for chronic and acute cases especially 
in severe cases. This is prepared by put- 
ting "pancreatin" a pancreatic ferment, 
(trypsin), into fresh milk. Preparations 
of "pancreatin" are sold in the drug- 
stores. The peptonized milk does not form 
curds and readily passes through the 
stomach for digestion in the intestine. 
This may be given for a few days, followed 
by milk and limewater, barley and toast 
water, kumyss, oatmeal gruel, meat juices, 
scraped meat (raw, boiled or roasted), 
broths thickened with thoroughly cooked 
cereals, ice cream, egg lemonade, gelatins 
and whipped cream, custards, raw oysters. 

After one week gradually assume the 
regular diet of easily digested foods. All 
cereals should be thoroughly cooked. The 
white meat of chicken is readily digested. 
As the solid food diet is assumed, regu- 
larity of food, in small amounts, and 
thorough mastication are important. If 
the patient imagines he is chewing it will 
help him to keep chewing until the food 
is reduced to a pulp. 

Avoid meat with tough fibre, too fat 
meat (pork), sausage, lobster, salmon, 

245 



chicken salads, mayonnaise, cucumbers, 
pickles, cabbage, tea, coffee and alcohol. 

Four or five light meals a day are pre- 
ferable to three heavy meals. 

The regulation of the flow of gastric 
juices is constitutional. The general cir- 
culation must be forceful, the habit of deep 
breathing and of regular periods of com- 
plete rest of body and mind established. 

Since one with chronic gastritis is liable 
to have many idiosyncracies, he should not 
be urged to eat foods for which he has a 
dislike. The easily digested foods should 
be prepared in various ways and served 
in an appetizing, dainty manner. 

There are four special phases of chronic 
gastritis, Mucous Gastritis, Hyperchlorhy- 
dria, Hypochlorhydria and Achlorhydria. 

In Mucous Gastritis there is a profuse 
secretion of mucus into the stomach. In 
this case it is always well to wash out the 
stomach before introducing food, as sug- 
gested above. 

The same general diet, suggested above 
for acute gastritis, should be followed. 

Hyperchlorhydria. The condition known 
as Hyperchlorhydria shows a liberal ex- 
cess of hydrochloric acid. The condition 
is common, and is brought on by worry, 
nervous excitement, eating when overtired, 

24G 



irregularity of food, imperfect mastication 
and excessive use of alcohol. The diet 
should be a mixed one, in about normal pro- 
portions. If anything, it should incline 
more to proteins than to starches. The 
hydrochloric acid is necessary for the di- 
gestion of proteins. It reduces the protein 
to acid albumin, which is less irritating to 
the stomach. However the proteins are 
stimulating to the stomach and the protein 
proportion should not be carried to excess. 

The juice of one-fourth of a lemon taken 
one half hour before the meal will decrease 
the secretion of hydrodiloric acid into the 
stomach. 

Limewater and milk may constitute the 
diet for two days; alkaline, effervescing 
mineral water may be used and then the 
diet should follow the general principles 
for chronic gastritis. Avoid all irritating 
foods. 

HypocMorhydria is a diminution in the 
amount of hydrochloric acid. Physicians 
often administer hydrochloric acid about 
one half hour to an hour after the meal. 

Many advocate a diet omitting protein, 
but since protein foods stimulate the flow 
of gastric juices, they should not be omit- 
ted, but used a little less freely. 

247 



Achlorhydria. Where there is an entire 
absence of hydrochloric acid, as in Achlor- 
hydria, the stomach, of course, cannot 
digest proteins and this digestion must be 
done entirely by the trypsin of the pan- 
creatic juice. The presence of liquified 
protein as beef juice in the stomach, how- 
ever, acts as a stimulus to the gastric juice 
and is an agency in again starting its flow. 

The foods should be liquid, so as to pass 
through the stomach without irritation. 
Clear milk must be excluded, because of 
the action of the rennin in coagulating the 
casein. This would irritate the stomach. 

Peptonized milk, described on page 245 
may be used as an article of diet, — also 
milk with limewater, gelatin, cream, olive 
oil, gruels, and any foods which would pass 
through the stomach in a liquid state. Any 
cereals must exclude the bran and must be 
masticated to a pulp, so that they may 
readily pass into the small intestine. 

Dilation of the Stomach results from con- 
tinued overeating, (especially when the 
nerves are weak), or eating when over 
tired. The muscular walls become so weak 
that they fail to contract. Peristalsis is 
likewise weak and the food, failing to di- 
gest promptly, ferments and forms gas. A 

248 



dilated stomach is larger and its weight 
and weakness cause it to prolapse. 

In the prolapsed condition the pyloric, 
or lower orifice of the stomach, is often 
nearly closed, partly by reason of its posi- 
tion and partly by the weakened folds of 
the stomach walls. Because of this ob- 
struction to the free emptying of the con- 
tents into the duodenum, it is imperative 
that the food be masticated to a pulp and 
thus mixed with saliva, that the salivary 
digestion of starches may be complete in 
the stomach ; or, at least, that all foods be 
reduced to a liquid state in the stomach. A 
chunk of food could not easily pass through 
the pylorus. All liquid or semi-liquid food 
should be held in the mouth until it, also, is 
mixed with saliva. The stomach should 
not be overloaded with either food or water 
and for this reason six meals a day, of light 
feeding, is best. 

A dilated stomach does not necessarily 
indicate that the digestive juices are not 
secreted in normal proportions and easily 
digested proteins need not be avoided. It 
is desirable to furnish the proteins in con- 
centrated form, as in meats, so as to get 
the most nutrition with the least bulk. 
Milk may be used, with limewater, if sipped 

249 



slowly and held in the mouth until mixed 
with saliva. 

Sugar should be used very sparingly, 
because it ferments readily and aggra- 
vates the distension. If it is evident that 
fermented products are in the stomach, it 
should be washed out with a stomach 
pump. 

A tumor near the pylorus, or constric- 
tion of the pyloric orifice, will also cause 
dilation of the stomach. 

Beef juice, any of the better grades of 
meats, well masticated and containing no 
gristle, limewater and milk, soft cooked 
eggs, and well cooked cereals should con- 
stitute the diet. 

Avoid vegetables containing coarse fibre, 
fried foods, and bread baked on the same 
day. 

Liquid with the meal should be avoided, 
on account of the tendency to overload 
the stomach. 

Cold water, taken a swallow at a time 
at intervals during the day, has a tonic 
effect upon the relaxed muscles. It also 
incites the flow of gastric juice. 

Ulcer of the Stomach. Where this con- 
dition is severe, accompanied with severe 
pains and vomiting of blood, the dietetic 

250 



treatment is to give the nourishment 
through the rectum for from five to ten 
days. Then follows a period of ten days 
milk diet, with bouillon, barley water, a 
beaten egg, and once a day, after the third 
day, strained oatmeal gruel. 

Limewater is added to the milk to avoid 
the formation of leathery curds and to neu- 
tralize the acids of the stomach. The 
patient is given half a cup of milk every 
hour for three days, from 7 A. M. to 9 P. M. 
From the third to the tenth day increase 
the quantity to one cupful, then to a cup 
and a half and lengthen the periods be- 
tween feedings to two hours. If the milk 
is brought to a boil before the limewater 
is added, it digests more readily. 

After ten days, for the succeeding ten 
days the nourishment should be given 
every two hours and the diet varied by 
semi-liquid foods, such as gruels, toast 
water, soft boiled egg (once a day) beef 
juice, two softened crackers (once a day) 
gelatin, buttermilk and strained soups. 

After twenty days the patient, if all is 
well, may very gradually resume a normal 
diet, beginning with baked potatoes, 
softened toast, lamb chops, a small piece 
of steak or white meat of chicken. It is 
imperative that all food, liquid or solid, 

251 



be thoroughly mixed with saliva and that 
solids be chewed to a pulp. 

Liquids must not be swallowed either 
hot or cold, but about body temperature. 
Cold water may be taken into the mouth 
when more palatable than warm and held 
there until about body temperature before 
it is swallowed. All liquid should bo 
sipped, not swallowed in gulps. 

Cancer of the Stomach. Since the 
growth most often obstructs the pylorus, 
the stomach is usually dilated and the 
general directions for dilation of the 
stomach should be followed. If the food 
will not digest in the stomach, one must 
resort to rectal feeding. Where gastric 
digestion is near normal, the general prin- 
ciples of diet for ulceration of the stomach 
should be followed. 

Most cases of intestinal difficulties 
Intestinal ma y ^ ^racad ^ a clogged condi- 
tion, either due to a weakness of the 
nerves and of the intestinal muscles, and 
a resultant weak peristalsis, which does 
not strongly move the mass along its 
course, or to a failure of the liver to dis- 
charge sufficient bile to lubricate the mass. 
If the waste is not promptly moved 

252 



through the intestines, irritation may re- 
sult and the poisons from bacterial fer- 
mentations will be absorbed by the system. 
Deranged stomach digestion also inter- 
feres with the digestion in the intestines. 

Constipation The causes of this diffi- 
culty are so varied that it can seldom 
be regulated by diet alone. It can be 
helped. A large number of cases of chronic 
constipation are due to the failure to re- 
spond to Nature's call at a regular time 
each day, thus establishing a regular habit 
at a certain hour. Many others are due to 
the weakness of the muscular walls of the 
intestines or to the nerves controlling 
them. In this event the intestinal peris- 
talsis is weak. Still another cause is a 
failure of the liver to discharge sufficient 
bile into the intestines to lubricate the 
foeces. Many chronic cases are due to the 
pill and drug habit. Where one continues 
to take pills, the condition brings a result 
similar to the feeding of "predigested" 
food, — if the work is done for the organs 
they become lazy and rely upon artificial 
aid. Every part of the body requires 
activity for strength. 

If the straight front corset cramps the 
intestines it may cause constipation by re- 

253 



straining their normal exercise during 
movements of the body in walking, etc. 
Every woman who wears the straight 
front corset should take exercises for the 
intestines morning and night. 

The most natural relief for constipation 
is exercise, — particularly exercise directed 
to the muscles of the intestines and to the 
nerve centers controlling them. 

Such foods as are laxative in effect, with 
the free use of water are helpful. Figs 
and raisins (due to their seeds), prunes, 
dates, grapes, apples, and rhubarb are 
laxative, due to their acids. These have 
best effect when eaten just before retiring. 

Oatmeal, or any cereal containing the 
bran, is laxative, — such as bran bread or 
green corn. 

As must be inferred from the above 
statement, the cause of the difficulty must 
first be reached. 

Children should be trained to attend to 
Nature's call regularly every day. The 
best time is shortly after breakfast. 

Enteritis. (Inflammation or Catarrh of 
the Intestines) is similar in its nature to 
Gastritis or Catarrh of the Stomach and 
is treated in a similar manner. 

254 



Acute Enteritis, as Acute Gastritis, is 
usually caused by a strong irritant, — either 
by some food which disagrees, or by a mass 
of undigested food. A fast of two or three 
days is the initial dietetic treatment. A 
free drinking of water not only soothes the 
irritated intestines but it cleanses the in- 
testinal tract and assists the kidneys in 
eliminating elements of fermentation; if 
these are not eliminated, they will absorb 
into the blood. 

Physicians usually give a course of calo- 
mel and castor oil to eliminate all intes- 
tinal contents. 

After the fast, a liquid and semi-liquid 
diet is followed until inflammation is re- 
lieved. Milk, strained gruels, broths, 
strained soups, buttermilk, eggs (soft 
cooked or raw), beef juice, barley water, 
custards, gelatines, soft puddings, etc., are 
the foods most nourishing and causing 
least irritation. 

All irritating foods as coarse vegetables, 
pickles, acid fruits and fruits with coarse 
seeds, candies, beer, wines and salads 
should be omitted. 

Chronic Enteritis has the same general 
cause, as Acute Enteritis, though its onset 
is slow and it takes a correspondingly 
longer time to correct. 

255 



Dysentery, if acute, demands complete 
rest in bed. The diet in both Acute 
and Chronic cases must be confined to eas- 
ily digested foods, such as peptonized 
milk (see page 244), boiled milk, pressed 
meat juice, and the white of egg, beaten 
and served with milk. Blackberry brandy, 
and tea made from wild cherry bark, tend 
to check the inflammation. 

During convalescence, care must be 
taken not to over-feed. Begin a more lib- 
eral diet with a more liberal allowance of 
beef juice, gradually adding tender beef 
steak, roast beef, fish, white meat of 
chicken, eggs, custards, wine jelly, dry 
toast, blancmange, well boiled rice and 
other easily digested food. The beef and 
egg are particularly valuable, because of 
the anaemia occasioned by the loss of 
blood. 

is sometimes necessary in cases of 
5 eC j^ ulcer, cancer, or tumor, along the di- 

gestive tract. Since food is not ab- 
sorbed in the large as readily as in the 
small intestine, the strength cannot be 
fully maintained through rectal feeding. 
In cases where the stomach is not able to 
digest the food, it is the best expedient, 

256 



however, until the functioning of the stom- 
ach is re-established. 

The rectum should be prepared about 
an hour before the feeding by a full injec- 
tion of water, to thoroughly cleanse the 
intestine. Place the patient on his side 
with the hips elevated. If for any reason 
he cannot lie on his side, let him lie on his 
back and elevate the foot of his bed. After 
the water cleansing, inject two or three 
ounces of water in which a small pinch of 
salt (6%) has been added and let it go 
high up into the rectum. 

Two to three ounces four to five hours 
apart is the desirable quantity of rectal 
nutrition for an adult. The white of egg, 
beef juice, and milk, all peptonized, are 
the best foods. The pancreatic trypsin, 
sold in preparations of "pancreatin" is 
best. Unless milk is peptonized the casein 
will be difficult to absorb. The food should 
always be salted, as salt aids the absorp- 
tion. 

The white of egg should be diluted with 
four or five times its volume of water; to 
beef juice add an equal volume of water. 
The yolk of egg contains too much oil to 
absorb readily. Fats are not absorbed 
through the rectum. If egg and beef juice 
are used without milk, a little sugar may 

257 



be added. Milk contains sugar in propor- 
tion. 

It is not advisable to inject wine as it 
interferes with absorption of other foods. 

The nutriment should be forced eight to 
ten inches up into the rectum to insure ab- 
sorption. This can be done by using a 
small injection point on a rubber tube and 
gently and patiently turning it as it is 
inserted. The tube may be oiled to prevent 
irritation. 

The liver is not, in a strict sense. 
Derange- a digestive organ, but it is very 

ments o dependent upon them, as all prod- 

ucts of digestion must pass 
through it and the starches, sugars and 
proteins, after they enter the blood, un- 
dergo chemical changes here. 

For a fuller understanding of the rea- 
sons for the following suggestions regard- 
ing diet for the liver, the writer would re 
quest a re-reading, at this point, of the 
chapter upon the "Work of the Liver" 
upon pages 81 to 92. 

It will be recalled that the liver acts, 
not only upon proteins, sugars, and 
starches, — the nourishing foods, but it also 
stands guard over poisonous ferments, due 
to putrefactions absorbed from the intes- 

258 



tines, rendering them harmless; to a lim- 
ited extent it also oxidizes the poisons of 
alcohol. The fats also pass through the 
liver. 

Since all products of digestion must pass 
through this organ, it is easy to see how it 
may be overworked, for it is an undisputed 
fact that most people eat more food than 
is required to maintain the body in nitrog- 
enous equilibrium and to supply the neces- 
sary heat and energy. 

After the gorging of a heavy meal, the 
overloaded blood and liver express them- 
selves in a sluggish brain and one feels 
mentally, as well as physically, logy, or 
overloaded. 

Since both sugar, carbohydrates and 
protein undergo chemical changes in the 
liver, it is evident that a diet consisting of 
an excess of either, must overwork the 
liver, not only through the nutritive food 
elements absorbed, but through the toxic 
substances which must be absorbed, — due 
to the excessive amount of food not being 
digested as readily as a smaller amount. 
If the food remains in the intestines too 
long, it is attacked by the bacteria always 
present there, fermentation results and 
poisons are absorbed and carried to the 
liver, where they must be broken down and 

259 



rendered harmless, so as not to affect other 
parts of the system. If for any reason the 
liver is diseased, overloaded, or its action 
is sluggish, it will not promptly oxidize 
these toxins. 

One of the most important corrective 
agencies for an inactive liver is exercise 
directed to this organ, to bring a free sup- 
ply 'of blood, and deep breathing of fresh 
air. It is apparent that the blood must 
carry its full quota of oxygen to assist in 
oxidizing both the nitrogenous waste and 
the poisons; and it must be remembered 
that the liver must oxidize the waste from 
its own tissues, as well as from other parts 
of the system. 

It is apparent, from the above, that the 
regulation of diet for an abnormal liver 
must be more in the quantity than in the 
quality of food and in the perfect diges- 
tion. It depends also upon the activity of 
the intestines, since the poisonous products 
of imperfectly digested and fermenting 
food, not being regularly eliminated, must 
be absorbed and carried to the liver. It is 
to free the intestines of the waste contain- 
ing the toxins that physicians give calomel 
and other strong cathartics, to work off the 
toxins. These cathartics also work off 
foodstuffs from the intestines before they 

260 






are absorbed, so that the liver has more 
rest. 

Torpid Liver or Billiousness. This con- 
dition is due to the sluggish action of this 
organ and a consequent failure to eliminate 
the bile through the bile ducts into the duo- 
denum. It may be caused by inactivity 
and a resultant sluggish circulation of 
blood, to overwork of the liver, due to over- 
eating, to breathing of impure air, or to 
insufficient breathing of pure air. It may 
also result from constipation and a resul- 
tant absorption of toxic matter as de- 
scribed above. 

Many cases of billiousness are oc- 
casioned by obstruction of the opening of 
the bile ducts into the intestines, which is 
often occasioned by an excess of mucus 
in the duodenum. In such cases exercise 
for the intestines is clearly indicated. 

In the bending, twisting and squirming 
movements which the infant in the cradle 
makes, the liver is regularly squeezed and 
relaxed. The same is true in the free move- 
ments of an active child at play. If dur- 
ing adult life these same free movements 
of bending and twisting the trunk were 
continued daily and correct habits of free 
breathing of pure air were established, 

261 



there would be little call for "liver tonics." 

The elaboration of carbohydrates in the 
liver is an important part of its work and 
in case of inactive liver the sugars and 
starches should be limited, allowing that 
function to rest. Yet it is a mistake to 
allow a diet too rich in protein. The best 
method is to cut down the quantity of a 
mixed diet. 

Two glasses of water an hour before 
breakfast followed by brisk exercise for the 
vital organs and deep breathing are impor- 
tant. The daily action of the bowels is 
imperative. In extreme cases a fast of two 
or three days, with a copious use of water, 
is recommended. Following this fast the 
diet should consist of easily digested foods, 
eliminating those containing starch and 
sugars in too great proportions, and it 
should be as limited as possible, consistent 
with the actual necessity for rebuilding 
and for energy. 

Some authorities restrict fats in a diet 
for billiousness but the presence of fat in 
the duodenum stimulates the flow of pan- 
creatic juice, which in turn stimulates the 
secretion of bile. 

Lemon stimulates the action of the 
hepatic glands and thus tends to increase 
the liver activity. 

262 



There is a prevalent thought that eggs 
and milk cause sluggish liver action. 
There is no physiological reason for this 
if too much food is not eaten. One often 
loses sight of the fact that milk is a food 
as well as a beverage, and that when milk 
constitutes an appreciable part of the diet 
other foods should be limited accordingly. 



The DIET may be selected from the following:* 
Soups. — Light broths and vegetable soup with a 
little bread toasted in the oven. 

Fish.— Raw oysters, fresh white fish. 
Meats. — Mutton, lamb, chicken or game. 

Farinaceous. — Whole wheat or graham bread and 

butter, toast buttered or dry, toasted crackers, t 
cereals in small portions. 

Vegetables. — Fresh vegetables, plain salads of 
watercress, lettuce, and celery. 

Desserts. — Gelatins, fruits, cornstarch, ice cream, 
junket, simple puddings, — all with very little sugar. 

Liquids. — Hot water, lemonade, orangeade, toast 
water, buttermilk, loppard milk and unfermented 
grape juice, — not too sweet. 

AVOID. — All rich, highly seasoned foods, can- 
dies, cheese, pies, pastry, pan cakes, or any fried 
foods, salmon, herring, mackeral, bluefish, eels, dried 
fruits, nuts and liquors of all kinds. 

The diet for gall stones need have 



Gall 

chemical action upon sugars is not inter- 



no reduction in protein nor carbohy- 
drates, since the oxidation, or the 



* Alida Frances Pattee; Practical Dietetics" Mt. Vernon, 
N. Y. 

263 



fered with. The presence of fat in the 
duodenum increases the flow of pancreatic 
juice which, in turn stimulates the flow of 
bile, so olive oil is often recommended in 
case of gall stones. 

is a serious disturbance of nutri- 
Diabetes ^ Qm j t - g ] mown an( j tested by the 

appearance of sugar in the urine. How- 
ever, the conclusion should not be drawn 
that one has diabetes if the urine test for 
a day shows sugar. This may be due to 
an excess of carbohydrates, particularly of 
sugar in the diet a day or two previous 
and all trace of it may disappear in a day. 
If continued tests for some period show 
an excess, nutritional disturbances are in- 
dicated. 

The most usual form of diabetes is dia- 
betes mellitus. It is supposed to be due to 
a disturbance in the secretions from the 
pancreas. Experiments have shown that 
the general process of putting the carbo- 
hydrates in condition to be absorbed into 
the blood is controlled by a secretion from 
the pancreas. 

The difficulty which confronts the dieti- 
tian is to prescribe a diet without carbo- 
hydrates which will keep up the body 
weight and not disturb the nutritive equi- 

264 



librium. The diet must consist of protein 
and fat and one danger is in the tendency 
to acetic and other acids in the blood, which 
involves the nervous system. The patient 
has a craving for sugars and starches, but 
the system cannot make use of them, and 
the heat and energy must be supplied by 
fats. While, as a rule, the craving for cer- 
tain foods is an indication that the system 
needs the elements contained in it, — this 
is true in the craving of the diabetes patient 
for carbohydrates, — yet the desire must 
not be gratified, because of the inability to 
digest them. 

There is often a distaste for fat, but its 
use is imperative and in large quantities, 
because the weight and general vitality 
must be maintained. The effort of the 
physician is to get the system in condition 
to use carbohydrates. 

Fats may be supplied in the yolk of egg, 
cream, butter, cheese, bacon, nuts, particu- 
larly pecans, butternuts, walnuts and Bra- 
zil nuts. 

In beginning a diet, the change must not 
be too sudden. At least a week's time 
should be allowed for the elimination of 
all sugar and starch. Begin by eliminating 
sugars and next bread and potatoes. 

265 



Van Noorden gives the following diet, 
free from carbohydrates, which has been 
in general use in Europe and America. 

BREAKFAST. 

Tea or coffee, 6 ounces. 

Lean meat (beefsteak, mutton chop, or ham), 4 
ounces. 

Eggs one or two. 

LUNCH. 

Cold roast beef, 6 ounces. 

Celery, or cucumbers, or tomatoes with salad dres- 
sing. 

Coffee, without milk or sugar, 2 ounces. 

Whisky, drams, diluted with 13 ounces of water. 

DINNER. 

Bouillon, 6 ounces. 

Roast beef, 7j ounces. 

Green salad, 2 ounces. 

Vinegar, 2| drams. 

Butter, 2i drams. 

Olive oil, 5 drams, or spinach with mayonnaise, 

large portion. 
Whisky, 5 drams, diluted with 13 ounces water. 

SUPPER, 9 P. M. 

Two eggs, raw or cooked. 

Van Noorden includes alcohol, in whisky, 
in his diet and most physicians follow the 
theory that whisky or brandy aids in the 
digestion and absorption of fats ; the need 
is recognized since fats must be supplied 
in so large quantities, yet the sweet wines 
and beers contain sugar while the sour 
wines contain acids, which disturb diges- 
tion. 

266 



There is a grave question in regard to 
the advisability of including alcohol in the 
diet of a young person afflicted with dia- 
betes and the greater activity of the young 
patient will insure more perfect digestion, 
so that the physician may not consider 
alcohol necessary. 

Dr. Hall gives the following as a reason- 
able diet for a diabetic case, after the first 
week or two, allowing potatoes. 

BREAKFAST. 

Tea or coffee, 6 ounces. 

Cream, 2 ounces. 

Meat, (beefsteak, mutton chops, or ham), 4 ounces. 

Bread and butter, 2 slices. 

Baked potato, with butter. 

LUNCH. 

Cold roast beef or cold boiled ham, 6 ounces. 
Bread and butter, two slices. 
Salad with mayonnaise dressing, egg garniture. 
Tea or coffee with cream. 

4 P. M. 

Egg lemonade or egg orangeade. 

DINNER. 

Clear soup of any kind. 

Roast beef or mutton, or pork. 

Potatoes, baked or boiled. 

Olives, celery, or radishes. 

Side dish of green vegetables. 

Bread and butter. 

Dessert, milk-egg custard, sweetened with saccharin. 

After a week on either of the above diets, 
in mild cases, sngar will disappear from 

267 



the urine. In extreme cases, it may be 
necessary to follow this strict regime for 
two weeks. When the patient begins to 
eat a little starch, potatoes and bread are 
re-instated first. Sugar is kept out of the 
diet, except the little in fruit and vege- 
tables, until the urine shows no trace of it. 

The following is a list of foods allow- 
able: 

Fresh meat, fish, oysters, clams, lobster, 
turtle, meat extracts, fats of all kinds, 
eggs, such fresh vegetables as peas, beans, 
lentils, lettuce, celery, asparagus, cabbage, 
pickles, clear soups (all kinds), cheese (all 
kinds), coffee, tea (without sugar), cream, 
butter, fruit, acid drinks and carbonated 
waters. 

In the dietetic treatment of any 
Derangements diseased organ, the object must be 
~. * e to give that organ as much rest 

as consistent with keeping up the 
general nutrition of the system. The stom- 
ach and intestines are so closely allied that, 
where one is affected, the other is liable to 
affection also, and the dietetic treatment 
is regulated accordingly. Yet generally 
speaking, in stomach disorders the quan- 
tity of protein is limited ; in intestinal dis- 
orders the starches, sugar and fats are 

268 



limited. Since the office of the kidneys is 
to pass from the system the soluble salts 
and the nitrogenous waste, which dissolve 
in water, the work of the kidneys in most 
conditions is aided by a copious drinking 
of water. Since uric acid is stimulated by 
the kidneys, the proteins should be re- 
stricted in the diet, particularly those 
formed from the glands of animals, — as 
liver, sweetbreads, kidneys, also brains. 
Potatoes, green vegetables, stone fruits 
and cranberries aggravate an acute condi- 
tion. 

Acute Nephritis. In case of inflamma- 
tion of the kidneys the excretions are inter- 
rupted. In this event the quantity of 
water should be limited to three to four 
glasses a day. In the event that the kid- 
neys will not excrete the water, the pores 
of the skin must be kept freely open by 
sweat baths to assist in the elimination of 
waste. 

Dr. Hall recommends a milk and cream 
diet of from three to seven pints a day, for 
a few days, according to the case, — two 
parts of milk to one of cream. If the urine 
is scanty, he reduces it to one and one half 
pints a day, taken in four or five install- 
mentSo After the three to seven days of 

269 



milk diet he gradually introduces starches 
and fats. 

Brights Disease. This term covers forms 
of diseases of the kidneys, associated with 
albumin in the urine. 

Where for any reason the kidneys have 
difficulty in discharging the nitrogenous 
waste of the system, the work of the dieti- 
cian must be to eliminate protein from the 
diet as closely as may be consistent with 
the body necessities. Besides restricting 
the amount of nitrogenous foods, the kid- 
neys must be assisted in eliminating the 
nitrogenous waste, and the products of the 
inflammation, by a copious drinking of 
water. Hot water and hot diluent drinks 
are best, such as toast water, barley water, 
cream of tartar, lemon and acid drinks. 
In acute cases the patient is put on a milk 
diet of from two to three pints of milk a 
day, given one-half pint every three or four 
hours, diluted with one-third as much hot 
water. If the case be a prolonged one, 
broths may be included. 

Even in cases which are chronic and not 
acute, it is well to follow a milk diet for a 
number of weeks. The quantity of milk, 
for an exclusive milk diet, must depend 
upon the age and size of the patient as well 

270 



as upon his ability to exercise. If he is 
confined to his room, from five to seven 
pints of milk a day are sufficient. If he is 
taking a great deal of exercise, he may 
take from eighteen to twenty glasses of 
milk a day. If he loses weight on the milk 
diet, bread and rice may be added. 

It is unwise to begin a milk diet at once, 
by feeding from eighteen to twenty glasses 
of milk a day, but this amount may be ap- 
proximated within a week's time and the 
change in diet should be begun by cutting 
down all meats and legumes and gradually 
eliminating starches. In changing from a 
milk diet to a diet including more hearty 
foods, the transition should be gradual. 

A. F. Pattee gives the following diet for 
Brights Disease. 



DIET: Soup. — Vegetable or fish soup, broths 
with rice or barley. 

Fish. — Raw oysters or clams, fresh fish broiled 
or boiled. 

Meats. — Eat sparingly, chicken, game, fat bacon,, 
fat ham. 

Farinaceous. — Stale bread, whole wheat bread, 
toast, milk toast, biscuits, macaroni, rice, cereals 
of all kinds. 

Vegetables. — Onion, cauliflower, mashed pota- 
toes, mushrooms, lettuce, watercress, spinach, cel- 
ery, cabbage. 

Desserts. — Ripe raw fruits, stewed fruits, rice 
tapioca, bread and milk puddings, junkets, cocoa. 

271 



Liquids. — Toast water, weak tea, pure water, 
peptonised milk, malted milk, fresh buttermilk, milk 
with hot water, equal parts, whey, mnfermented 
grape juice. 

AVOID. — Fried fish, corned beef, hashes, stews, 
pork, veal, heavy bread, batter cakes, lamb, mutton, 
beef, gravies, beans, peas, malt or spirituous liquors, 
tobacco, coffee, ice cream, cake, pastry. 

The condition of the nerves depends 

^ervous U p 0n the general condition of the 
Disorders * , ? , , ... 

system and upon general nutrition. 

There is no one food or set of foods which 

directly affect any nervous trouble, unless 

this trouble be localized by disturbance in 

some particular organ. Then the effort 

must be to correct the difficulty in that 

organ. 

There is no disturbance in any part of 
the body requiring less medicine than a 
disturbance in the nerves. The correction 
must come through general hygienic treat- 
ment. Eegular exercise, alternated with 
regular rest periods, the formation of the 
habit of complete nerve relaxation, the 
general regulation of an easily digested, 
nutritious diet, with deep breathing exer- 
cises, are the best remedies. 

In many cases of nerve debility the 
nerves seem to be stronger in the latter 
part of the day. Where this is the case 
the hearty meal should be eaten at this 
time. 

273 



Neurasthenia. In cases of Neurasthenia, 
or " Tired Nerves," all vital organs are 
more or less affected, because the nerves 
do not properly direct digestion, absorp- 
tion, assimilation or elimination and, 
for this reason, the diet should be light 
and of easily digested foods. A free, 
correct breathing of fresh air, day and 
night, is imperative. It is important also 
to thoroughly masticate all food and drink 
freely of water. A change of thought, in- 
duced by a change of scene or companions, 
is helpful. 

This difficulty is usually the result of 
1 high living. It most often attacks peo- 
ple past middle age, who have indulged 
in rich pastries, puddings, meat three 
times a day, or who have, frequently in- 
dulged in alcohol. 

Being supposedly caused by an excess 
of uric acid and other waste deposited in 
the joints, resulting from too much pro- 
tein and an insufficient elimination of the 
waste of the system, the dietetic treatment 
must be a low protein diet. Alcohol is ab- 
solutely prohibited and the quantity of car- 
bohydrates and fats must be cut down as 
well as the protein. 

273 



In acute cases a diet of bread and milk, 
or toast and milk, with light vegetable 
broths should be followed for one to three 
days. 

In chronic cases the diet may consist of 
the following :* 

Soups. — Vegetable broths. 

Fish. — Fresh fish, shell fish, raw oysters. 

Meats. — It is better to omit all meats. If meat 
is eaten at all, it should be confined to game, 
chicken and fat bacon. 

Farinaceous. — Cereals, crackers, dry toast, milk 
toast, macaroni, graham or whole wheat bread, rye 
bread, oatmeal and any of the breakfast foods. 

Nuts.— With salt. 

Vegetables. — Celery, lettuce, watercress, all 
greens, with vinegar, string beans, green peas, pota- 
toes, carrots and beets. 

Fruits. — All fruits, stewed or fresh. Unpeeled 
apples are especially recommended. (Greens, with 
vinegar and unpeeled apples increase the action of 
the kidneys. 

Desserts. — Plain puddings, junket, rice, stewed 
or fresh fruits. 

Liquids. — Pure water, toast water, barley water, 
butter milk, malted milk, milk. 

Eat eggs sparingly and in severe cases, not at all. 

AVOID. — Alcohol, coffee, tobacco, dried fruits, 
nuts, cheese, candies, pastries, pies, spices, rich 
puddings, fried foods, vinegar, pickles, lemons, rhu- 
barb, mushrooms, asparagus, sweet potatoes, toma- 
toes, gravies, patties, rich soups, lobster, salmon, 
crabs, mackeral, eel, veal, pork, goose, duck, turkey, 
salted, dried, potted or preserved fish or meat, (ex- 
cept bacon). 

* A. F. Pattee; "Practical Diatetics," A. F. Pattee, Pub- 
lisher, Mt. Vernon, X. Y. 

274 



. Since the medical profession is 
Rheumatism. unable to determine just what 

rheumatism is, it is difficult to prescribe a 
diet. The theory so long believed that it is 
an excess of uric acid in the system is no 
longer held by most of the advanced physi- 
cians. Some authorities hold that it is a 
nerve difficulty ; others that it is an excess 
of lactic acid. Some authorities put one 
on an entire meat diet, in case of rheuma- 
tism, and others entirely exclude meat. 
Uric acid may accompany the disease. 

Assuming that it is due to the failure of 
the system to promptly eliminate its waste, 
whether this failure to eliminate be through 
a weakened condition of the nerves, and 
the consequent failure to properly direct 
the body activities, the correction of the 
difficulty must lie in building up the gen- 
eral vitality and in aiding the system in 
its elimination. Hot sweat baths, a free 
use of water and a free use of fruits, par- 
ticularly the citrous fruits, such as lemons, 
oranges, limes, etc., are desirable, because 
they increase the alkalinity of the blood. 
The acid unites with other acids of the 
body acting as a re-agent. Often when the 
acidis of the stomach are strong, sodium 
carbonate (baking soda) produces an alka- 
line reaction. 



275 



The diet should be cut down in quantity. 
Meat may be eliminated if an excess of 
uric acid exists and the above suggestions 
under the diet for Gout be followed. 

Fruit juices should be used freely be- 
cause of their alkaline reaction and be- 
cause of their diuretic effect. Lemonade, 
orangeade and all fresh fruits and vege- 
tables are diuretic. 

Regular exercises, until the body is 
thoroughly heated, deep breathing of 
pure air day and night and a copious 
drinking of water are necessarv. 



x o 



Interference in the action of the 
Uremia or kidneys is apt to result in a reten- 

PoSn°in tion ^ ithin the s 7 stem of the ele- 
ments, which the kidneys, in normal 
condition, eliminate from the system, such 
as urea, uric acid, urates, sulphuric acid, 
sulphates, sodium phosphate, xanthin 
bodies and conjugated sulphates. These 
substances are not thrown off by the skin. 
or by the lungs, and must all be eliminated 
through the kidneys. They are the result 
of the oxidation and the breaking down of 
the proteins of the body. If the kidneys do 
not throw these off, the result is Uremic 
Poisoning, and the dietetic treatment must 
be to cause a free action of the kidneys by 

276 



the use of diuretics. Of these the citrous 
fruits, (lemons, oranges, limes, etc.,) are 
the best ; they neutralize acid's and produce 
an alkalinity of the blood. They should be 
used freely. 

Meats, eggs and legumes should be elim- 
inated from the diet. A free drinking of 
water, milk with limewater, cereals, butter- 
milk, kumyss, barley water, toast water, 
lemonade, orangeade, vegetables and fruit 
should constitute the diet. Exercise and 
free breathing of fresh air are imperative. 
All food should be thoroughly masticated. 

An excess of uric acid may not al- 
Ex.cess ° ways cause uremic poisoning, but it 
indicates an excess of protein in the 
system above the amount eliminated by the 
kidneys and the skin. This excess is often 
the cause of chronic ailments, such as 
bronchitis, asthma, hay-fever, severe nerve 
depression, gout, rheumatism, neuralgia, 
tonsilitis, grippe, influenza, colds, etc. 

The natural relief is to control the diet, 
supplying less protein and to increase the 
elimination through a free action of the 
kidneys, of the pores of the skin, and of 
the lungs. Systematic exercise, deep 
breathing, a copious drinking of water and 

277 



fresh air day and night, are the best re- 
liefs. 

One may either eliminate the proteins 
from the diet, or may cut down the entire 
quantity of food, and, by exercise, breath- 
ing, a freedom of the pores of the skin and 
a free drinking of water, so as to create 
an activity of the kidneys, may continu- 
ously eliminate more uric acid than is con- 
sumed in the food. 

The regulation of the quantity of the 
food, rather than the cutting down of the 
proteins and the feeding of a larger pro- 
portion of starches, is the course pursued 
where one is inclined to an excess of uric 
acid and still has an excess of fat. 

In case of an excess of uric acid in thin 
persons, such proteins food as meat and 
eggs may be eliminated and the diet con- 
sist almost wholly of carbohydrates and 
fats. 

The diet is the same as that given above 
for Gout. 

All diets for obesity must be pre- 
Obesity SC ribed for the individual condi- 
tion. A large number of the obese are 
afflicted with rheumatism, sluggish livers, 
sluggish action of the intestines and weak 

278 



nerves, and the diet must be governed ac- 
cordingly.* 

The regulation of food for reduction of 
flesh must, also, be governed by age, sex, 
by the manner of breathing and by the 
amount of daily exercise. 

Exercise, breathing and diet are the 
scientific means of reduction, the food 
must be regulated in accordance with the 
quantity of carbohydrates and fats daily 
consumed in heat and energy. 

Leanness No definite diet can be given for 
flesh building, because a lack of sufficient 
fat to round out the figure is due to faulty 
digestion or assimilation and the cause 
must first be eliminated. 

It may be that the strength of the mus- 
cles and nerves of stomach, liver and in- 
testines must first be built up by exercises 
and deep breathing, and it may be that the 
habit of nerve relaxation must be estab- 
lished. Where one's nerves are tense 
much nourishment is consumed in nervous 
energy and the nerves to digestive organs 
and muscles being tense, interfere with di- 
gestion and assimilation. 



* Editor's Note: The causes and relief of Obesity are fully 
discussed in my book of this series "Poise, Obesity and Lean- 
ness, their Causes and Relief." 

279 



It is apparent that the cause must first 
be corrected, because to overload the di- 
gestive organs with sugars, starches and 
fats, further weakens them. 



380 



APPENDIX 



MEASURES AND WEIGHTS. 

A few tables of measures may be helpful here 
because accurate measurements are necessary to 
insure success in the preparation of any article of 
food. 

All dry ingredients, such as flour, meal, powdered 
sugar, etc., should be sifted before measuring. 

The standard measuring cup contains one-half 
pint and is divided into fourths and thirds. 

To measure a cupful or spoonful of dry ingred- 
ients, fill the cup or spoon and then level off with 
the back of a case-knife. 

In measures of weight the gram is the unit. 

A "heaping cupful" is a level cup with two table- 
spoonsful added. 

A "scant cupful" is a level cup with two table- 
spoonsful taken out. 

A "salt spoon" is one-fourth of a level teaspoon. 

To measure butter, lard and other solid foods, 
pack solidly in spoon or cup and measure level 
with a knife. 

TABLE OF MEASURES AND WEIGHTS* 

4 saltspoons = 1 teaspoon, tsp. 

3 teaspoons =1 tablespoon, tbsp. 

4 tablespoons —I cup or £ gill. 

16 tablespoons (dry ingredients) =1 cup, c. 

12 tablespoons (liquid) =1 cup. 

% gills = 1 cup. 

2 cups =1 pint. 

2 pints = 1 quart. 

4 quarts =1 gallon. 

2 tablespoons butter =1 ounce. 

281 



1 tablespoon melted butter = l ounce. 

4 tablespoons flour — i ounce. 

2 tablespoons granulated sugar — 1 ounce. 

2 tablespoons liquid — l ounce. 

2 tablespoons powdered lime — l ounce. 

1 cup of stale bread crumbs — 2 ounces. 

1 square Baker's unsweetened choc- 

olate — l ounce. 

Juice of one lemons (about) 3 table- 
spoons 

5 tablespoons liquid =1 wineglassful. 

4 cups of sifted flour =1 pound 

2 cups of butter (packed solid) ... =1 pound 
2 cups of finely chopped meat 

(packed solidly) =1 pound 

2 cups of granulated sugar =1 pound 

2f cups of powdered sugar =1 pound 

2§ cups brown sugar =1 pound 

2§ cups oatmeal =1 pound 

4f cups rolled oats = 1 pound 

9 to 10 eggs =1 pound 

1 cup of rice = £ pound. 

APOTHECARIES WEIGHTS* 

20 grains = 1 scruple, 

3 scruples = 1 drachm, 3 

8 drachms (or 480 grains) =1 ounce, 3 

12 ounces = 1 pound, lb. 

APOTHECARIES MEASURES* 

60 minims (M) =1 fluid drachm, f 3 

8 fluid drachms =1 fluid ounce, f £ 

16 fluid ounces =1 pint, or pt. 

2 pints =1 quart, qt. 

4 quarts =1 gallon, gal. 

APPROXIMATE MEASURES* 

One teaspoonful equals about 1 fluid drachm. 

One dessertspoonful equals about 2 fluid drachms. 

One tablespoonf ul equals about 4 fluid drachms. 

One wineglassful equals about 2 ounces. 

One cup (one-half pint) equals about 8 ounces. 

282 



METRIC MEASURES OF WEIGHT* 

In measures of weight the gram is the unit. 

1 gram 1.0 gm. 

1 decigram 0.1 gin. 

1 centigram 0.01 gm. 

1 milligram 0.001 gm. 



* Practical Diatetics, Alida Frances Pattee, Publisher, Mt. 
Vernon, N. Y. 



ns 



Classification of Diets. 

The purpose is not to give below such 
receipts as are found in ordinary cook 
books, but simply to suggest foods useful 
for invalids, for semi-invalids, or for 
chronic, abnormal conditions of digestive 
organs. 



BEVERAGES. 

Beverages are primarily to relieve 
thirst; they may also contain food ele- 
ments; they may be used for their effect 
in heat and cold; for their flavor which 
helps to increase the appetite ; or for their 
stimulating properties. 

WATER. Pure and carbonated; mineral waters 
contain iron, sulphur, lithium, etc. 

Hot drinks should be served at a temperature 
of from 122 to 140 degrees F. When water is used 
as a hot drink it should be freshly drawn, brought 
to a boil and used at once. This sterilizes and 
develops a better flavor. 

Cold water should be thoroughly cooled, but not 
iced, unless ice water is sipped very slowly and held 
in the mouth until the chill is off. Water is best 
cooled by placing the receptacle on ice rather than 
by putting ice in the water. 

284 



FRUIT JUICES. Under fruit juices are 

Grape juice, apple juice, 

Currant juice, pineapple juice, 

Orangeade and lemonade. 

They are especially grateful to fever patients 
and are often used to stimulate the appetite. They 
are particularly valuable for the acids which they 
contain, which stimulate the action of the kidneys 
and the peristaltic action of the digestive tract; 
they also increase the alkalinity of the blood. 

Apples contain malic acid, lemons citric acid 
and grapes tartaric acid. The ferment in the ripe 
pineapple juice aids in the digestion of proteins.* 

Lemonade. Wash and wipe a lemon. Cut a 
slice from the middle into two pieces to be used 
in the garnish before serving; then squeeze the 
juice of the rest of the lemon into a bowl, keeping 
back the seeds. Add sugar and boiling water; cover 
and put on ice to cool; strain and pour into a glass. 

Fruit Lemonade. To change and vary the flavor, 
fresh fruit of all kinds may be added to strong 
lemonade, using boiling water as directed above. 

Egg Lemonade. Beat an egg thoroughly, add 2 
tablespoonsful of sugar, 2 tablespoonsful of lemon 
juice and gradually pour in one cup of cold water. 
Stir until smooth and well mixed. Serve thoroughly 
cold. This drink is very easily digested, the lemon 
having partly digested the egg; 2 tablespoonsful of 
sherry or port may be added. 

Bran Lemonade. Mix J4 cup of wheat bran with 
2 cups of cold water. Allow this to stand oyer night 
and in the morning add the juice of a lemon. 

Pineapple Lemonade. Mix y 2 cup of grated pine- 
apple with the juice of 1 lemon and 2 tablespoons- 
ful of sugar; add J^ cup of boiling water, put on ice 
until cool, then add 1 cup of ice cold water. Strain 
and serve. 



* The following receipts for fruit beverages are adapted 
from Practical Diatetics by Alida Frances Pattee, Publisher, 
Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 

285 



Grape Lemonade. To one cup of lemonade, 
made as directed above, rather sweet, add J^ cup 
of grape juice. 

Orangeade is prepared as lemonade. The juice 
of one sour orange to 2 tablespoonsful of sugar and 
yi cup of boiling water is about the right propor- 
tion. 

Mixed Fruit Drink. Mix J4 cup of grated pine- 
apple, the juice of J4 a lemon, the juice of Y> an 
orange, 1 cup of boiling water and sugar to taste. 
Put on the ice until cool. Strain and add more cold 
water and sugar according to taste. 

Pineapple Juice. Pour y 2 cup of pineapple juice 
over crushed ice and serve in a dainty glass. This 
is especially helpful in cases of weak digestion and 
in some throat troubles — as stated above, the pine- 
apple aids protein digestion. 

Lemon Whey. Heat one cup of milk in a small 
sauce pan, over hot water, or in a double boiler. 
Add two tablespoonsful of lemon juice; cook with- 
out stirring until the whey separates. Strain 
through cheese cloth and add two teaspoons of 
sugar. Serve hot or cold. Garnish with small 
pieces of lemon. 

Wine Whey may be made in the same way, using 
% cup of sherry wine to 1 cup of hot milk. 

Grape Juice, Apple Juice and Currant Juice are 
tonics and make a dainty variety for the sick room. 
They should be used according to their strength, 
usually about 1/3 of juice to 2/3 water. They should 
be kept cold and tightly corked until ready to 
serve. 

Grape Lithia. Add 4 ounces of Lithia water to 
1 ounce of grape juice and two teaspoons of sugar. 

Grape Nectar. 'Boil together 1 pound of sugar 
and Yz pint of water until it begins to thread. Re- 
move from the fire and when cool add the juice 
of 6 lemons and one quart of grape juice. Let stand 
over night. Serve with ice water, Apollinaris, or 
plain soda water. 

286 



Tea Punch. Pour boiling lemonade, sweetened 
to taste, over tea leaves. Allow the liquid to stand 
until cool. Then strain and serve with shaved ice 
and slices of lemon. This makes a delicious cooling 
drink for hot weather. 



LIQUID FOODS. 

Under this heading such liquids are 
given as are actual foods. 

MILK. Milk is a complete food and a perfect 
food for infants, but not a perfect food for adults. It 
may be used as 

Whole or skimmed; 

Petonized; boiled; 

Sterilized, pasteurized; 

Milk with lime water, Vichy or Appollinaris; 

With equal parts of farinaceous liquids; 

Albuminized milk with white of egg] 

Milk with egg yolk, flavored with vanilla, cin- 
namon or nutmeg; 

Milk flavored with coffee, cocoa, or meat broth; 

Milk punch; milk lemonade; 

Koumiss; kefir or whey, with lemon juice, as 
above. 

EGG PREPARATIONS. These consist of 
Albumin water (diluted white of egg) y flavored 
with fruit juice; 

Egg lemonade; egg orangeade; 
Egg with meat broth; 
Egg with coffee and milk; 
Chocolate eggnogg. 

287 



Often the white of egg y dissolved in water or 
milk, is given when the yolk cannot be digested, 
because of the amount of fat which the yolk con- 
tains. 

Where one is inclined to billiousness, the egg 
is better digested if beaten in wine. 

The albuminous or egg drinks are best prepared 
cold. 

Egg-nog. To make egg-nog, separate the white 
and the yolk, beat the yolk with 3^ of a table- 
spoonful of sugar and a speck of salt until creamy. 
Add % of a cup of milk and 1 tablespoonful of 
brandy. Beat the white until foamy, add to the 
above mixture and serve immediately. A little nut- 
meg may be substituted for the brandy. The eggs 
and milk should be chilled before using. Egg-nog 
is very nutritious. 

Egg Broth. Beat the yolk of 1 egg, add 1 table- 
spoonful of sugar and a speck of salt. Add 1 cup 
of hot milk and pour it on gradually. Flavor with 
nutmeg. 

Dried and rolled bread crumbs may be added, 
or beef, mutton or chicken broth may be used in 
place of the milk, and the sugar may be omitted. 
The whole egg may be used if desired. 

This is very delicious made with beef broth, 
instead of hot milk. Pineapple juice or coffee may 
be used. 

Coffee Egg-nog. 1 egg, 1% teaspoons of sugar. 
J /2 scant cup of milk or cream, y 2 scant cup of 
coffee. 

Egg Malted Milk. Mix 1 tablespoonful of Hor- 
lick's Malted Milk with 1 tablespoonful of crushed 
fruit and 1 egg; beat for live minutes. Strain and 
add 20 drops of acid phosphate, 1 tablespoonful of 
crushed ice and Y$ cup of ice water. A grating of 
nutmeg may be used for flavor. 

Grape Yolk. Separate the white and the yolk 
of an egg, beat the yolk, add the sugar and let the 
yolk and sugar stand while the white of the egg is 
thoroughly whipped. Add two tablespoonsful of 

288 



grape juice to the yolk and pour this on to the 
beaten white, blending carefully. Have all ingred- 
ients chilled before blending and serve cold. 

Albuminized Milk. Beat ^2 cup of milk and the 
white of one tgg with a few grains of salt. Put 
into a fruit jar, shake thoroughly until blended. 
Strain into a glass and serve cold. 

Albumin Water. Albumin water is used chiefly 
for infants in cases of acute stomach and intestinal 
disorders, in which some nutritious and easily assim- 
ilated food is needed. The white of 1 tgg is dis- 
solved in a pint of water, which has been boiled and 
cooled. 

Albuminized Grape Juice. Put two tablespoons- 
ful of grape juice into a dainty glass with pure 
chopped ice. Beat the white of one egg, turn into 
the glass, sprinkle a little sugar over the top and 
serve. 

FARINACEOUS BEVERAGES. These are all 
made by slowly adding cereals, such as barley, rice, 
oatmeal, etc., to a large quantity of boiling water and 
cooking from two to three hour3 and then straining 
off the liquid and seasoning to taste. They are par- 
ticularly valuable when only a small amount of 
nutriment can be assimilated. Since the chief in- 
gredient is starch, long cooking is necessary to make 
soluble the starch globules and >to change the 
starch into dextrin, so that it can be more readily 
digested. Since these drinks are given only in case 
of weak digestion, it is important that they be taken 
slowly and held in the mouth until they are thor- 
oughly mixed with the saliva. 

Barley Water. (Infant feeding). Mix 1 tea- 
spoonful of barley flour with two tablespoonsful of 
cold water, until it is a smooth paste. Put in the 
top of a double boiler and add gradually one pint 
of boiling water. Boil over direct heat five min- 
utes, stirring constantly; then put into a double 
boiler, over boiling water, and cook fifteen min- 
utes longer. This is used as a diluent with normal 
infants and to check diarrhoea. 

289 



For children or adults use ^ teaspoonful of 
barley or rice flour, 1 cup of boiling water and Y\ 
teaspoonful of salt. Cream or milk and salt may- 
be added for adults, or, lemon juice and sugar, 
according to the condition. 

Barley water is an astringent and used to check 
the bowels when they are too laxative. 

Rice Water. Wash two tablespoonsful of rice, 
add 3 cups of cold water and soak thirty minutes. 
Then heat gradually and cook one hour until the 
rice is tender. Strain through muslin, re-heat and 
dilute with boiling water or hot milk to the consis- 
tency desired. Season with salt; sugar may be 
added if desired and cinnamon, if allowed, may be 
cooked with it to assist in reducing a laxative con- 
dition. 1 teaspoonful of stoned raisins may be 
added to the rice, before boiling, if there is no bowel 
trouble. 

Oatmeal Water. Mix 1 tablespoonful of oat- 
meal with 1 tablespoonful of cold water. Add a 
speck of salt and stir into it a quart of boiling 
water. Boil for three hours, replenishing the water 
as it boils away. Strain through a fine sieve or 
cheese cloth, season and serve cold. Sufficient water 
should be added to keep the drink almost as thin 
as water. 

Toast Water. Toast thin slices of stale bread 
in the oven; break up into crumbs; add 1 cup of 
boiling water and let it stand for an hour. Rub 
through a fine strainer, season with a little salt. 
Milk, or cream and sugar may be added if desir- 
able. This is valuable in cases of fever or extreme 
nausea. 

Crust Coffee. Dry crusts of brown bread in the 
oven until they are hard and crisp. Pound or roll 
them and pour boiling water over. Let soak for 
fifteen minutes, then strain carefully through a fine 
sieve. 

Meat Juice. Meat juice may be prepared in 
three ways: 

290 



(1) Broil quickly, or even scorch, a small piece 
of beef. Squeeze out the juice with a lemon 
squeezer, previously dipped in boiling water. Catch 
the juice in a hot cup. Season and serve. If de- 
sirable to heat it further, do so by placing the cup 
in hot water. 

(2) Broil quickly and put the small piece into 
a glass jar. Set the covered jar in a pan of cold 
water. Heat gradually for an hour, never allow- 
ing the water to come to a boil. Strain and press 
out the clear, red juice, season and serve. One 
pound of beef yields eight tablespoonsful of juice. 

(3) Grind raw beef in a meat grinder; place 
in a jar with a light cover and add one gill of cold 
water to a pound of beef. Stand it on ice over 
night, strain and squeeze through a bag. Season 
and serve. 

Meat Tea. Meat tea is made in the proportion 
of a pound of meat to a pint of water. Grind the 
meat in the meat grinder, place in a jar and cover 
with cold water. Set the jar in an open kettle of 
water and cook for two hours or more, not allowing 
the water to boil. Strain, squeeze through a bag, 
skim off the fat and season. 

Meat Broth. Meat broth is made from meat and 
bone, with and without vegetables. The proportion 
is a quart of water to a pound of meat. Cut the 
meat into small pieces, add the cold water and 
simmer until the quantity is reduced one-half. 
Strain, skim and season with salt. Chicken, veal, 
mutton and beef may be used in this way. They 
may be seasoned with onions, celery, bay-leaves, 
cloves, carrots, parsnips, rice, barley, tapioca; stale 
bread crumbs may be added. 

Soups. Clear soups are made by cooking raw 
meat or vegetables, or both together, slowly, for a 
long time, straining and using the liquid. The 
flavor may be changed by browning the meat or 
vegetables in butter before adding the water. 

Cream Soups are made in the proportion of one 
quart of vegetables, (such as corn, peas, beans, to- 
matoes, celery or asparagus^ to one pint of water 
and a pint of milk. Cook the vegetables thoroughly 

291 



in water and mash through a colander. To this 
water and pulp add a cream sauce made in the pro- 
portion of 4 tablespoonsful of flour, 4 tablespoons- 
ful of butter and a pint of milk for vegetables poor 
in starch or protein. Add 2 tablespoonsful of flour, 
2 tablespoonsful of butter and a pint of milk for 
those rich in protein. Season to taste. 

Tomato acid should be counteracted by the ad- 
dition of one-eighth tablespoonful of soda before 
the milk is added. 

Potato soup may be flavored with onion or 
celery, or both, 



SEMI-SOLID FOODS. 

The following lists of foods are given 
for ready reference.* 

Jellies. 

(a) Meat Jellies and gelatin; veal, beef, chicken, 

mutton. 

(b) Starch Jellies, flavored with fruit; corn- 

starch, arrowroot, sago, tapioca. 

(c) Fruit jellies and gelatin. 

Custards. 

(a) Junkets, milk or milk and egg (iennet 

curdled), flavored with nutmeg, etc. 

(b) Egg, milk custard, boiled or baked. 

(c) Corn starch, tapioca, boiled custard. 

(d) Frozen custard (New York Ice cream.) 

Gruels. (Farinaceous) 

(a) Milk gruels. 

(b) Water gruels. 



* "Nutrition and Diatetics" by Dr. W. S. Hall, D. Appleton 
& Co., New York. 

292 



Toasts. 

(a) Cream toast. 

(b) Milk toast. 

(c) Water toast. 

Creams. 

(a) Plain. 

(b) Whipped. 

(c) Ice cream. 

Oils. 

(a) Plain olive, cotton seed, or nut. 

(b) Butter. 

(c) Emulsion, as mayonnaise. 

(d) Cod liver oil, plain or emulsified. 



SOLID FOODS. 

(Suitable for Invalids.) 

Cereals. 

(a) Porridges and mushes — Oatmeal, cornmeal, 

wheat, rice, etc. 

(b) Dry preparations — Shredded wheaj: biscuit, 

corn flakes, puffed rice, purled wheat, tris- 
cuit. 

Breads. 

(a) Plain — White, graham, nutri-meal, whole 

wheat, brown, rye, etc. 

(b) Toasts — Dry, buttered, zweiback. 

(c) Crackers — Soda, graham, oatmeal, Boston 

butter, milk. 

(d) Biscuits — Yeast biscuits (24 hours old), bak- 

ing powder biscuit, beaten biscuit. 

293 



Egg Preparations. 

(a) Boiled, poached, scrambled, baked. 

(b) Omelets. 

(c) Souffles of meat and of potatoes. 

Meats. 

(a) Beef or mutton — Broiled or roasted. 

(b) Chicken, turkey or game — Broiled or roasted. 

(c) Fish — Broiled, boiled or baked. 

(d) Oysters — Canned, stewed, etc. 

(e) Clams — Chowder, broiled or baked. 

Vegetables. 

(a) Potatoes — Baked, boiled, creamed and escal- 

loped. 

(b) Sweet potatoes, baked and boiled. 

(d) Lima beans, plain and creamed; string beans, 
plain and creamed; cauliflower, plain and 
creamed; carrots, parsnips. 

(c) Green peas, plain and creamed. 

(d) Lima beans, plain and creamed; string beans, 

plain and creamed cauliflower, plain and 
creamed; carrots, parsnips. 

Fruits. 

(a) Fresh — Oranges, grapes, melons, etc. 

etc. 

(b) Stewed apples, plums, apricots, pears, ber- 

ries, etc. 

(c) Baked apples, bananas, pears. 

(d) Canned peaches, apricots, plums, pears. 

(e) Preserved peaches, plums. 



294 



SEMI-SOLID FOODS. 
JELLIES. Meat Jellies are made in two 
ways: 

(1) Cook soup meat (containing gristle and 
bone) slowly for a long time in just enough water 
to cover. Strain and set the liquid away in a 
mold to cool and set. If desired, bits of shredded 
meat may be added to the liquid before molding. 

(2) Use meat broth and gelatin in the propor- 
tion of one tablespoon gelatin to three quarters of 
a cup of hot broth. Pour into mold and set on ice. 

Starch Jellies.— Starch Jellies are made by cook- 
ing in a pint of fruit juice or water until clear, two 
tablespoons of tapioca, arrowroot, sago, cornstarch, 
or flour. Sweeten to taste. 

If water is used, fresh fruit may be used either 
in the jelly or in a sauce poured over the jelly. 

Fruit Jellies. — These are made: 

(1) Of fruit juice and sugar in equal quantities, 
cooked until it will set when cooled; 

(2) Of fruit juice and gelatin in the proportion 
of one tablespoon of gelatin to three fourths of a cup 
of fruit juice, or one half box gelatin to one and a 
half pints of juice. Sugar to taste. Made tea or 
coffee, or cocoa or lemonade may be used in the 
same proportion. 

CUSTARDS.— These are made with (1) 
milk, (2) milk and eggs, (3) milk, egg and 
some farinaceous substances as rice, corn- 

295 



starch, tapioca. In the first the ooagulum 
is produced by the addition of rennet, in 
the other two by the application of heat. 

Plain Junket. — Dissolve in a cup of lukewarm 
milk (never warmer), a tablespoon of sugar or 
caramel syrup. Add a quarter of a junket tablet, 
previously dissolved in a tablespoon of cold water. 
Stir a few times, add vanilla, nuts, or nutmeg if 
desired. Pour into a cup and set aside to cool and 
solidify. This may be served plain or with whipped 
cream, or boiled custard. 

Egg-Milk Custard. — When eggs are used for 
thickening, not less than four eggs should be used 
to a quart of milk (more eggs make it richer). 

Boiled Custard. — One pint of milk, two eggs, half 
cup of sugar, half saltspoon of salt. Scald the milk, 
add the salt and sugar, and stir until dissolved. 
Beat the eggs very thick and smooth. Pour the 
boiling milk on the eggs slowly, stirring all the 
time. Pour the mixture into a double boiler, set 
over the fire and stir for ten minutes. Add flavor- 
ing. As soon as a thickening of the mixture is 
noticed remove from the lire, pour into a dish and 
set away to cool. This custard makes cup custard, 
the sauce for such puddings as snow pudding, and 
when decorated with spoonfuls of beaten egg-white, 
makes floating island. 

Baked Custard. — Proceed as in boiled custard, 
but instead of pouring into a double boiler pour 
into a baking dish. Set the dish in a pan of water, 
place in the oven and bake until the mixture is set 
in the middle. 

Farinaceous Custards. — Make like boiled cus- 
tard, using one less egg and adding one quarter cup 
of farina, tapioca, cornstarch, arrowroot, or cooked 
rice to the hot milk and tgg. 

Sago should be soaked over night before using. 

Tapioca should be soaked one hour before using. 

296 



Coffee Custard. — Scald one tablespoon of ground 
coffee in milk and strain before proceeding as for 
boiled custard. 

Chocolate Custard. — Add one square of grated 
chocolate to the milk. 

Caramel Custard. — Melt the dry sugar until 
golden brown, add the hot milk, and when dissolved 
proceed as before. Bake. 

GRUELS.— Gruels are a mixture of grain 
or flour with either milk or water. They 
require long cooking and may be flavored 
with sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, or almond. 

Take the meal or flour (oatmeal, two tablespoons, 
or cornmeal, one tablespoon, or arrowroot, one and 
a half tablespoons). Sift it slowly into one and a 
half cups boiling water, simmer for an hour or 
two. Strain off the liquid; add to it one teaspoon 
of sugar, season with salt, and add one cup of warm 
milk. 

Water Gruel. — If water gruel is desired, let the 
last cup of liquid added be water instead of milk. 

Cream Gruel. — A cream gruel may be made by 
using rich cream instead of milk or water. 

Barley Gruel. — Barley gruel (usually a water 
gruel) is prepared as follows: Moisten four table- 
spoons of barley flour in a little cold water and 
add it slowly to the boiling water. Stir and boil 
for twenty minutes. 

TOASTS.— Cream Toast.— Toast the bread slow- 
ly until brown on both sides. Butter and pour 
over each slice enough warm cream to moisten (the 
cream may be thickened slightly and the butter 
may be omitted.) 

Milk Toast. — One tablespoon of cornstarch or 
flour; one cup of milk, salt to taste, and boil. Butter 
the toast and pour over it the above white sauce. 

297 



Water Toast. — Pour over plain or buttered toast 
enough boiling water to thoroughly moisten it. 

SOUFFLES OF FRUIT, ETC.— The distin- 
guishing feature of a souffle is a pastry or 
pulpy foundation mixture, and the addi- 
tion of stiffly beaten egg-white. A souffle 
may or may not be baked. 

Plain Souffle. — Two tablespoons flour; one cup 
of liquid (water, milk, or fruit juice) ; three or four 
eggs; sugar to suit the fruit. If thick fruit pulp is 
used, omit the thickening. Beat the egg yolks until 
thick. Add sugar gradually and continue beating. 
Add the fruit (if lemon juice add some rind also). 
Fold in the well-beaten whites. Bake in a buttered 
dish (set in a pan of hot water) for thirty-five or 
forty minutes in a slow oven. 

Fresh Fruit Souffle. — Reduce the fruit to a pulp. 
Strawberries, peaches, prunes, apples, bananas, etc., 
may be used. Sweeten the pulp. Beat the egg- 
white to a stiff froth, add the fruit pulp slowly. 
Chill and serve with whipped cream or soft cus- 
tard. 

Chocolate Souffle. — Two tablespoons flour; two 
tablespoons butter; three quarters cup of milk; one 
third cup of sugar: two tablespoons hot water. Melt 
the butter, add the flour and stir well. Pour the 
milk in gradually and cook until well boiled. Add 
the melted chocolate, to which the sugar and hot 
water have been added. Beat in the yolks and fold 
in the whites of the eggs. Bake twenty-five min- 
utes. 

Farina Souffle. — Cook the farina (four table- 
spoons) in a pint of boiling water. Stir this with 
the egg-yolks, add sugar or salt, and later fold in 
the egg-whites, flavor, and set away to cool. 



298 



The following tables are from "Food 
and Dietetics," (Norton), published by 
the American School of Home Economics, 
Chicago. They are used in a number of 
schools of Domestic Science and in Diet- 
etic kitchens in hospitals. 

These tables are exceptionally valuable 
in compiling diets in various combinations* 
One readily determines the number of 
grams in various servings of different 
foods. For example — a small serving of 
beef (round), containing some fat, weighs 
36 grams; forty per cent; 14.4 grams, is 
protein, and sixty per cent, 21.6 grams, is 
fat, (no carbohydrates). One ordinary 
thick slice of white, home made bread 
weighs 38 grams; thirteen per cent, 4.94 
grams, is protein, six per cent 2.28 grams 
is fat and eighty-one per cent, 30.78 grams, 
is corbohydrate. 

One can readily make up the propor- 
tions of proteins, carbohydrates and fats 
required by the average individual sug- 
gested on pages 217-218 from various com- 
binations of foods. Each individual may 
make this study for himself to know 
whether his system is receiving too much 
in quantity, or too large a proportion of 
proteins or of carbohydrates or of fats. 

299 



TABLE OF 100 FOOD UNITS 



Name of Food 



"Portion" Con- 
taining 100 Food 
Units (approx.) 



Wt. of 100 
Calories 



Per cent of 



2 






COOKED MEATS 

fBeef, r'nd, boiled (fat) . . Small serving 
f Beef, r'd, boiled (lean) . . Large serving 
fBeef, r'd, boiled (med f ) . .Small serving 
fBeef, 5th rib, roasted .... Half serving 
fBeef, 5th rib, roasted. . . . Very small s'v'g. 

$Beef , ribs boiled Small serving 

*Calves foot jelly 

* Chicken, canned One thin slice 

*Lamb chops, boiled, av . One small shop . 

♦Lamb, leg, roasted Ord. serving . 

f Mutton, leg, boiled Large serving 

f Pork, ham, boiled (fat) . .Small serving 

fPork, ham, boiled Ord. serving 

f Pork, ham, r'st'd, (fat) . . Small serving 
f Pork, ham, r'st'd, (lean). Small serving 
♦Turkey, as pur., canned. Small serving 
fVeal, leg, boiled, ,..,,... Large serving 





. 36 


1.3 


40 


60 


00 




. 62 


2.2 


90 


10 


00 




. 44 


1.6 


60 


40 


00 




. 18.5 


.65 


12 


88 


00 


*g.. 


. 25 


.88 


18 


82 


00 




. 30 


1.1 


27 


73 


00 




112 

. 27 


4. 
.96 


19 
23 


00 

77 


81 




00 


p.. . 


. 27 


.96 


24 


76 


00 




. 50 


1.8 


40 


60 


00 




. 34 


1.2 


35 


65 


00 




. 20.5 


.73 


14 


86 


00 




. 32.5 


1.1 


28 


72 


00 




. 27 


.96 


19 


81 


00 




. 34 


1.2 


33 


67 


00 




. 28 


.99 


23 


77 


00 




. 67.5 


2.4 


73 


27 


00 



VEGETABLES 

♦Artichokes, av. canned .. 430 

♦Asparagus, av. canned 540 

♦Asparagus, av. cooked 206 

♦Beans, baked, canned Small side dish 75 

♦Beans, Lima, canned Large side dish 126 

♦Beans, string, cooked Five servings. 480 

♦Beets edible portion, cooked . . Three servings 245 
♦Cabbage, edible portion 310 

Carrots, cooked .Two servings. . 164 

♦Cauliflower, as purchased 312 

♦Celery, edible portion 540 

Corn, sweet, cooked One side dish. 99 

♦Cucumbers, edible pt 565 

♦Egg plant, edible pt 350 



15 


14 





86 


19 


33 


5 


62 


7.19 


18 


63 


19 


2.66 


21 


18 


61 


4.44 


21 


4 


75 


16.66 


15 


48 


37 


8.7 


2 


23 


75 


11 


20 


8 


72 


5.81 


10 


34 


56 


11 


23 


15 


62 


19 


24 


5 


71 


3.5 


13 


10 


77 


20 


18 


10 


72 


12 


17 


10 


73 



300 



Wt. of 100 
Calories 



"Portion" Con- 
Name of Food taining 100 Food 
Units (approx.) 



Per cent of 



2-2 h^ 

6* fa ; w- 



VEGETABLES (Continued) 

Lentils, cooked 89 

♦Lettuce, edible pt 505 

♦Mushrooms, as purchased 215 

Onions fresh, edible pt 200 

♦Onions, cooked 2 large s'v'gs. 240 

Parsnips, cooked 163 

♦Peas, green, canned Two servings. . 178 

♦Peas, green, cooked One serving. . . 85 

Potatoes, baked One good sized 86 

♦Potatoes, boiled One large sized 102 

♦Potatoes, mashed (creamed) . .One serving... 89 

♦Potatoes, chips One-half s* v'g . 17 

♦Potatoes, sweet, cooked Half av. potato 49 

♦Pumpkins, edible pt 380 

Radishes, as purchased 480 

Rhubarb, edible, pt 430 

♦Spinach, cooked Two ord. s'v'g. 174 

Squash, edible pt 210 

♦Succotash, canned Ord. serving . . 100 

^Tomatoes, fresh as purchased Four av 430 

Tomatoes, canned 431 

♦Turnips, edible pt 2 large s'v'gs . . 246 

Vegetable oysters 273 



FRUITS (DRIED) 

♦Apples, as purchased 34 

Apricots, as purchased 35 

♦Dates, edible portion Three large .. 28 

♦Dates, as purchased 31 

♦Figs, edible portion One large .... 31 

♦Prunes, edible portion Three large .. 32 

♦Prunes, as purchased 38 

♦Raisins, edible portion 28 

♦Raisins, as purchased 31 

301 



3.15 


27 


1 


72 


18 


25 


14 


61 


7.6 


31 


8 


61 


7.1 


13 


5 


82 


8.4 


12 


40 


48 


5.84 


10 


34 


56 


6.3 


25 


3 


72 


3 


23 


27 


50 


3.05 


11 


1 


88 


3.62 


11 


1 


88 


3.14 


10 


25 


65 


.6 


4 


63 


33 


1.7 


6 


9 


85 


13 


15 


4 


81 


17 


18 


3 


79 


15 


10 


27 


63 


6.1 


15 


66 


19 


7.4 


12 


10 


78 


3.5 


15 


9 


67 


15 


15 


16 


69 


15.2 


21 


7 


72 


8.7 


13 


4 


83 


9.62 


10 


51 


39 



1.2 


3 


7 


90 


1.24 


7 


3 


90 


.99 


2 


7 


91 


1.1 


2 


7 


91 


1.1 


5 





95 


1.14 


3 





97 


1.35 


3 





97 


1. 


3 


9 


88 


1.1 


3 


9 


88 



Name of Food 



"Portion" Con- 
taining 100 Food 
Units (approx.) 



Wt. of 100 
Calories 



O 



Per cent of 



o g 



FRUITS (FRESH OR COOKED) 



♦Apples, as purchased Two apples 

Apples, baked 

Apples, sauce Ord. serving 

Apricots, cooked Large serving 

♦Bananas, edible pt One large 

♦Blackberries 

Blueberries 

♦Blueberries, canned 

Cantaloupe Half or. serv'g. . . 

♦Cherries, edible portion 

♦Cranberries, as purchased 

♦Grapes, as purchased av 

Grape fruit 

Grape juice Small glass 

Gooseberries 

Lemons 

*Lemon juice 

Nectarines 

Olives, ripe About seven 

Oranges, as purchased, av.One very large. . . 
♦Oranges, juice L.arge glass 

Peaches, as purchased av. .Three ordinary. . 
♦Peaches, sauce Ord. serving. .... 

Peaches, juice Ordinary glass. . 

Pears One large pear . . . 

♦Pears, sauce 

Pineapples, edible p't'n, av 

♦Raspberries, black 

Raspberries, red 

Strawberries, av Two servings. . . . 

* Watermelon, av 



206 


7.3 


3 


7 


90 


94 


3.3 


2 


5 


93 


111 


3.9 


2 


5 


93 


131 


4.61 


6 





84 


100 


3.5 


5 


5 


90 


170 


5.9 


9 


16 


75 


128 


4.6 


3 


8 


89 


165 


5.8 


4 


9 


87 


243 


8.6 


6 





94 


124 


4.4 


5 


10 


85 


210 


7.5 


3 


12 


85 


136 


4.8 


5 


15 


80 


215 


7.57 


7 


4 


89 


120 


4.2 








100 


261 


9.2 


5 





95 


215 


7.57 


9 


14 


71 


246 


8.77 








100 


147 


5.18 


4 





96 


37 


1.31 


2 


91 


7 


270 


9.4 


6 


3 


91 


188 


6.62 








100 


290 


10. 


7 


2 


91 


136 


4.78 


4 





94 


136 


4.80 








100 


173 


5.40 


4 


7 


89 


113 


3.98 


3 


4 


93 


226 


8. 


4 


6 


90 


146 


5.18 


10 


14 


76 


178 


6.29 


8 





92 


260 


9.1 


10 


15 


75 


760 


27. 


6 


6 


88 



302 



Name of Food 





Wt. of 100 
Calories 




Per cent of 


"Portion" Con- 








taining 100 Food 


■ 


T3 


A+f 


Units (approx.) 


a 


9 


o a 




eS 


o 


12 tfd 




& o 


04 





DAIRY PRODUCTS 



♦Butter 

♦Buttermilk 

♦Cheese, Am., pale 

♦Cheese, cottage 

*Clieese, full cream 

♦Cheese, Neufchatel 

♦Cheese, Swiss 

♦Cheese, pineapple 

♦Cream 

Kumyss 

♦Milk, condensed, sweetened . 
♦Milk, condensed, unsweet'd . 

♦Milk, skimmed 

♦Milk, whole 

Milk, human, 2nd week 

Milk, human, 3rd month .... 
♦Whey 



Ordinary pat . 

1£ glass 

1£ cubic in. . . . 
4 cubic in ... . 
1£ cubic in. . . . 

Xh cubic in 

1£ cubic in. . . . 

lh cubic in. . . . 

I ord. glass. . 



1% glass 

Small glass . . 



Two glasses. 



12.5 
275 

22 

89 

23 

29.5 

23 

20 

49 
188 

30 

59 
255 
140 
162 
171 
360 



.44 
9.7 

.77 
3.12 

.82 
1.05 

.8 

.72 
1.7 
6.7 
1.06 
2.05 
9.4 
4.9 
5.7 
6 
13 



34 
25 
76 
25 
22 
25 
25 

5 
21 
10 
24 
37 
19 
11 

7 
15 



99.5 00 
12 54 
73 % 

8 
73 
76 
74 
73 
86 
37 
23 
50 

7 
52 
47 
46 
10 



16 

2 

3 

1 

2 

9 

42 

67 

26 

56 

29 

42 

47 

75 



CAKES, PASTRY, PUDDINGS AND DESSERTS 

♦Cake, chocolate layer Half ord. sq. pc 

♦Cake, gingerbread Half ord. sq. pc..., 

Cake, sponge Small piece 

Custard, caramel 

Custard, milk Ordinary cup 

Custard, tapioca Two-thirds ord.. . . 

♦Doughnuts Half a doughn't . . . 

♦Ijady fingers Two 

♦Macaroons Four 

♦Pie, apple One-third piece. . . . 

♦Pie, cream One-fourth pc 

♦Pie, custard One-third piece. . . . 

♦Pie, lemon One-third piece. . . . 

♦Pie, mince One-fourth piece. . 

♦Pie, squash One-third piece. . . . 



28 


.98 


7 


22 


71 


27 


.96 


6 


23 


71 


25 


.89 


7 


25 


68 


71 


2.51 


19 


10 


71 


122 


4.29 


26 


56 


18 


69.5 


2.45 


9 


12 


79 


23 


.8 


6 


45 


49 


27 


.95 


10 


12 


78 


23 


.82 


6 


33 


61 


38 


1.3 


5 


32 


63 


30 


1.1 


5 


32 


63 


55 


1.9 


9 


32 


59 


38 


1.35 


6 


36 


58 


35 


1.2 


8 


38 


54 


55 


1.9 


10 


42 


48 



303 



Wt. of 100 r> ar . ^„* nf 

Calories Per cent of 

"Portion" Oon- ^ 

Name of Food taming 100 Food g © £-« 

Units (ajpprox.) § '£ ja t* 

g ■ O ■** U^ 



CASES, PASTRY, PUDDINGS AND DESSERTS (Continued) 

Pudding:, apple sago 81 3.02 6 3 91 

Pudding-, brown betty Half ord.. s'v'g 56.6 2. 7 12 81 

Pudding, cream rice Very small s'v'g. . . 75 2.65 8 13 79 

Pudding, Indian meal Half ord. ser'g 56.6 2. 12 25 63 

Pudding, apple tapioca Small serving. ... . 79 2.8 1 1 98 

Tapioca, cooked Ord. serving 108 3.85 1 1 98 



SWEETS AND PICKXES 

♦Catsup, tomato, av 170 6. 10 3 87 

Candy, plain 

Candy, chocolate 

*Honey Four teasp'ns 

♦Marmalade (orange) 

♦Molasses, cane 

♦Olives, green edible portion. . .Five to seven 

♦Olives, ripe, edible portion. . . Five to seven 

♦Pickles, mixed 

♦Sugar, granulated Three heaping tsp 

or li lumps 

♦Sugar, maple Four teaspoons 

♦Syrup, maple .Four teaspoons 



NUTS, EDIBLE PORTION 

♦Almonds, av Eight to 15 

♦Beechnuts 

♦Brazil nuts Three ord. size .... 

♦Butternuts 

♦Cocoanuts 

♦Chestnuts, fresh, av 

♦ Filberts, av Ten nuts 

♦Hickory nuts 



26 


.9 








100 


30 


1.1 


1 


4 


95 


30 


1.05 


1 





99 


28.3 


1 


.5 


2.5 


97 


35 


1.2 


.5 





99.5 


32 


1.1 


1 


84 


15 


38 


1.3 


2 


91 


7 


415 


14.6 


18 


15 


67 


24 


.86 








100 


29 


1.03 








100 


35 


1.2 








100 



15 


.53 


13 


77 


10 


14.8 


.52 


13 


79 


8 


14 


.49 


10 


86 


4 


14 


.50 


16 


82 


2 


16 


.57 


4 


77 


19 


40 


1.4 


10 


20 


70 


14 


.48 


9 


84 


7 


13 


.47 


9 


85 


6 



304 



Name of Food 



"Portion" Con- 
taining 100 Food 
Units (approx.) 



Wt. of 100 
Calories 



Per cent of 

o 
6 a 

JO « 

"S ^ 



NUTS, EDIBLE PORTION (Continued) 

* Peanuts, av Thirteen double. . . 

* Pecans, polished About eight 

*Pine nuts, (pignolias) About eighty 

♦Walnuts, California About six 



18 


.62 


20 


63 


17 


13 


.46 


6 


87 


7 


16 


.56 


22 


74 


4 


14 


.48 


10 


83 


7 



CEREALS 

♦Bread, brown, average Ord. thick slice . . . 

*Bread, corn (johnnycake) aV. .Small square 

♦Bread, white, home made Ord. thick slice. . . 

♦Cookies, sugar Two 

Corn flakes, toasted Ord. cer. dish f'l. . 

♦Corn meal, granular, av 2£ level tbsp 

Corn meal, unbolted, av Three tbsp , 

* Crackers, graham Two crackers 

♦Crackers, oatmeal Two crackers 

♦Crackers, soda 3£ "Uneedas" 

♦Hominy, cooked Large serving. . . . 

♦Macaroni, av 

Macaroni, cooked Ord. serving 

♦Oatmeal, boiled 1£ serving 

♦Popcorn , 

♦Rice, uncooked 

♦Rice, boiled Ord. cereal dish . . . 

♦Rice, flakes Ord. cereal dish. . . 

♦Rolls, Vienna, av One large roll 

♦Shredded wheat One biscuit 

♦Spaghetti, average , 

*Wafers, vanilla Four , 

Wheat, flour, e't'e w'h't, av. . . Pour tbsp 

* Wheat, flour, graham, av 4£ tbsp , 

* Wheat, flour, patent, fam- 

ily and straight grade 

spring wheat, av Four tbsp 

^Zwiebach Size of thick slice 

of bread 



43 


1.5 


9 


7 


84 


38 


1.3 


12 


16 


72 


38 


1.3 


13 


6 


81 


24 


.83 


7 


22 


71 


27 


.97 


11 


1 


88 


27 


.96 


10 


5 


85 


26 


.92 


9 


11 


80 


23 


.82 


9.5 


20.5 


70 


23 


.81 


11 


24 


65 


24 


.83 


9.4 


20 


70.6 


L20 


4.2 


11 


2 


87 


27 


.96 


15 


2 


83 


L10 


3.85 


14 


15 


71 


L59 


5.6 


18 


7 


75 


24 


.86 


11 


11 


78 


28 


.98 


9 


1 


90 


87 


3.1 


10 


1 


89 


27 


.94 


8 


1 


91 


35 


1.2 


12 


7 


81 


27 


.94 


13 


4.5 


82.5 


28 


.97 


12 


1 


87 


24 


.84 


8 


13 


71 


27 


.96 


15 


5 


80 


27 


.96 


15 


5 


80 


27 


.97 


12 


3 


85 


23 


.81 


9 


21 


70 



305 



Name of Food 



"Portion" Con- 
taining 100 Food 
Units (arprox.) 



Wt. of 100 

Calories 



Per cent of 



9 ■ 

i 33 



MISCELLANEOUS 



*Eggs, hen's boiled One large egg. . . 

*Eggs, hen's whites. Of six eggs 

*Eggs, hen's yolks Two yolks 

*Omelet 

*Soup, beef, av 

*Soup, bean, av Very large plate. 

*Soup, ereani of celery Two plates 

*Consomme 

*Clam chowder Two plates 

*Chocolate, bitter Half-a-square. . . 

*Cocoa 

Ice cream (Phila) Half serving 

Ice cream (New York) .Half serving 



59 


2.1 


32 


68 


00 


181 


6.4 


100 





00 


27 


.94 


17 


83 


00 


94 


3.3 


34 


60 


6 


380 


13. 


69 


14 


17 


150 


5.4 


20 


20 


60 


180 


6.3 


16 


47 


37 


830 


29. 


85 


00 


15 


230 


8.25 


17 


18 


65 


16 


.56 


8 


72 


20 


20 


.69 


17 


53 


30 


45 


1.6 


5 


57 


38 


48 


1.7 


7 


47 


46 



♦Chemical Composition of American Food Materials. Atwater and 
Bryant. U. S. Department of Agricultural Bull. No. 28. 

tExperiments on Losses in Cooking Meats. (1900-03), Grindley, 
U. S. Department of Agricultural Bull. No. 141. 

^Laboratory number of specimen, as per Experiments on Losses 
in Cooking Meat. 

Tables Showing Average Height, Weight, Skin Surface and Food 
Units Required Daily With Very Eight Exercise 



BOYS 



Age 


Height in 
Inches 


Weight in 
Pounds 


Surface in 
Square Feet 


Calorie? or 
Food Unit? 


5 


41.57 


41.09 


7.9 


816.2 


6 


43.75 


45.17 


8.3 


855.9 


7 


45.74 


49.07 


8.8 


912.4 


8 


47.76 


53.92 


9.4 


981.1 


9 


49.69 


59.23 


9.9 


1.043.7 


10 


51.58 


65.30 


10.5 


1,117.5 


11 


53.33 


70.18 


11.0 


1.178.2 


12 


55.11 


76.92 


11.6 


1.254.8 


13 


57.21 


84.85 


12.4 


1.352.6 


14 


59.88 


94.91 


13.4 


1,471.3 



206 



GIRLS 



Age 
5 


Height in 
Inches 
41.29 




Weight in 

Pounds 

39.66 


Surface in Calories or 

Square Feet Food Units 

7.7 784.5 


6 


43.35 




43.28 




8,1 




831.9 


7 


45.52 




47,46 




8.5 




881.7 


8 


47.58 




52.04 




9.2 




957.1 


9 


49.37 




57.07 




9.7 




1,018.5 


10 


51.34 




62.35 




10.2 




1,081.0 


11 


53.42 




68.84 




10.7 




1,148.5 


12 


55.88 




78.31 
MEN 




11.8 




1,276.8 


Height 

in In. 

61 


Weight Surface in 

in Pounds Square Ft. 

131 15.92 


Proteids 
197 


Calories or Food Units 
Fats Carbohydrates 
591 1,182 


Total 
1,970 


62 


133 


16.06 


200 


600 




1,200 


2,000 


63 


136 


16.27 


204 


612 




1,224 


2,040 


64 


140 


16.55 


210 


630 




1,260 


2,100 


65 


143 


16.76 


215 


645 




1,290 


2,150 


66 


147 


17.06 


221 


663 




1,326 


2,210 


67 


152 


17.40 


228 


684 




1,368 


2,280 


68 


157 


17.76 


236 


708 




1,416 


2,360 


69 


162 


18.12 


243 


729 




1,458 


2,430 


70 


167 


18.48 


251 


753 




1,506 


2,510 


71 


173 


18.91 


260 


780 




1,560 


2,600 


72 


179 


19.34 


269 


807 




1,614 


2,690 


73 


185 


19.89 


278 


834 




1,668 


2,780 


74 


192 


20.33 


288 


864 




1,728 


2,880 


75 


200 


20.88 


300 
WOMEN 


900 




1,800 


3,000 


Height 

in In. 

59 


Weight Surface in 

in Pounds Square Ft. 

119 14.82 


Proteids 
179 


Calories 
Fats 
537 


or Food Units 
Carbohydrates 
1,074 


Total 
1,790 


60 


122 


15.03 


183 


549 




1,098 


1,830 


61 


124 


15.29 


186 


558 




1,116 


1,860 


62 


127 


15.50 


191 


573 




1,146 


1,910 


63 


131 


15.92 


197 


591 




1,182 


1,970 


64 


134 


16.13 


201 


603 




1,206 


2,010 


65 


139 


16.48 


209 


627 




1,254 


2,090 


66 


143 


16.76 


215 


645 




1,290 


2,150 


67 


147 


17.06 


221 


663 




1,326 


2,210 


68 


151 


17.34 


227 


681 




1,362 


2,270 


69 


155 


17.64 


232 


696 




1,392 


2,320 


70 


159 


17.92 


239 


717 




1,434 


2,390 



NOTE — With active exercise an increase of about 20 per cent total 
food units may be needed. 

307 



DIETARY CALCULATION WITH FOOD VALUES IN 
CALORIES PER OUNCE 



Breakfast 
Gluten Gruel 5 oz. 
Soft-Boiled Egg 
Malt Honey 1 oz. 
Creamed Potatoes 5 oz. 
Zwiebach 2 oz. 
Pecans % oz. 
Apple 5 oz. 



Proteids 
23.5 


Fats 
1.0 


Carbo- 
hydrates 
30.0 


26.3 


41.9 


86.2 


.. 15.0 


40.0 


104.0 


22.8 


52.8 


171.6 


8.4 


141.0 


13.4 


2.5 


6.5 


83.0 



Total 



283.2 



488.2 



869.9 



DIETARY CALCULATION WITH FOOD SERVED IN 100 
CALORIES PORTIONS 



Dinner 
French Soup 


Portions 
in serving 

% 
2 


Proteins 
10 


Fats 
20 


Carbo- 
hydrates 
20 


Nut Sauce 


1 


29 


55 


16 


Macaroni, Egg: 


1 


15 


59 


26 


Baked Potato 


2 


22 


2 


176 


Cream Gravy 


■L 


5 


33 


12 


Biscuit 


n 


20 


2 


128 


Butter 


i 


1 


99 




Honey 


2 






200 


Celery 


1 


4 




21 


Apple Juice 


1 






50 



101 



106 



270 



649 



Total 



1,025 



Hourly Outgo in Heat and Energy from the Human Body as 

Determined in the Respiration Calorimeter by the 

U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



Average (154 lbs) Calories 

Man at rest (asleep) 65 

Sitting up (awake) 100 

Light exercise 170 

Moderate exercise 190 

Severe exercise 450 

Very severe exercise 600 

308 



Contents 



Abnormal Conditions, diet in 233-282 

Absorption of foods 78-80 

Achlochlorhydria 248 

Adolescence, diet in 228 

Aged, diet for 231 

Albuminoids 66, 122 

Albuminized drinks 287-289 

Alcohol 83-84 

Alkali 122 

Anaemia 49, 133, 210, 236 

Appendix 281 

Appetite 95-98 

Apples 125 

Apricots 125 

Asparagus 120 

Bananas 125-126 

Barley water 90. 175, 289 

Beans ! . 120, 163 

Beef 128 

Beef Extracts 133 

Beets 116-118 

Beverages 183, 284-287 

Bile, Influence on Digestion 75 

Biscuits 146 

Blackberries 125 

Bouillons 133, 196 

Bran 141 

Bread 138, 143 

Breathing, Effect of 104-107 

Breakfast foods 150 

Bright' s Disease 270 

Brussells Sprouts 120 

Butter 55, 172 

Buttermilk 172 

309 



Carbo-nitrogenous foods 137-139 

Carbon 20 

Carbonaceous foods 37, 28, 51, 115, 137 

Candy ' 61 

Carrots 116, 118 

Cabbage 120 

Caffein 184 

Cancer of Stomach 250 

Casein 172 

Carbonized drinks 186 

Catarrh of Stomach 242-250 

Catarrh of Intestines 254 

Celery 120 

Cereals 137-138 

Cereals, Cooking of 199, 201 

Cereal Coffee 160 

Cerealin 140 

Chemical Comp. of foods, etc 20-24 

Chemical action of plants 21 

Cherries 125 

Chard 121 

Chocolate 161, 185 

Cheese 17fc 

Citrates 123. 125 

Citrous fruits 123, 125 

Classification of foodstuffs 37 

Classification of foods 115 

Cod Liver Oil 56 

Cotton Seed Oil 56 

Corn 138. 148 

Cornstarch 115-116 

Coffee 161. 184 

Coffee Eorgnog 287 

Cocoa 161. 185 

Condiments 1^7 

Cooking 191 

Constipation 253 

Cream 55 . V- 

Cranberries 123. 125 

Creatin 132-133 

Crackers •*■ 138 

Cracked wheat • 155 

Crust Coffee 290 

Cucumbers 12 ° 

Currants 123, 125 

310 



Custards (receipts) 295-290 

Dates 125 

Dandelions 121 

Dextrin 57, 153 

Dextrose 63, 74 

Diabetes 264 

Diets 207 

Diets, Classification of 284-292 

Diet, vegetable 219-222 

Dilation of Stomach 248 

Digestion 67-80 

Intestines 74-77 

Stomach 69-71 

Drinking at meals 43 

Dyspepsia 239 

Dysentery 256 

Economy in food 99-101 

Eggs 133 

Eggs, ways of serving 287-288 

Egg broth 287 

Egg lemonade 135, 285 

Eggnog .135, 287 

Egg malted milk 287 

Enteritis 254 

Exercise, Effects of 104-107 

Extractives 132 

Farinaceous beverages 289 

Fat 52, 75-76 

Figs 125 

Fish 129-130 

Flours 138, 141-143 

Food Supply 19 

Food Values 211-218, 299 

Fruits 122 

Fruit juices, receipts for 285-287 

Fruit drinks 286 

Frequency of meals 102-104 

Gall stones 75-76, 263 

Gastric iuice 71-74 

Gastritis* 242-250 

Gelatin 132 

Gelatinoids % . 132 

Glycogen 81-82 

Gluten . . . : 140-142 

Gout 273 

311 



Gooseberries 123-125 

Greens 121 

Green Vegetables 119-122 

Grapes 125 

Grape fruit 123 

Grape juice 286 

Grape nectar 286 

Grape lithia 286 

Grape yolk 288 

Gruels, receipts for 297 

Habit and regularity of eating 101-102 

Heat and energy 24 

Hydrochloric acid 71, 123, 175 

Hydrogen 20 

Hyperchlorhydria 246 

Hypochlorhydria 247 

Indigestion 239-254 

Intestinal disorders 251-255 

(Intestines, Work of 89-91 

Intestines, Inflammation of 256 

Iron ' 48 

Jellies, Receipts for 295 

Junket, Receipts for 296 

Kidneys 87-93 

Kidneys, derangement of 268 

Legumes 163 

Lemons 123-125 

Lemonades 186, 285-286 

Lemon Whey 286 

Lentils 168 

Lettuce 120 

Limes 123 

Limewater, Proportions of 176 

Limewater, How to prepare 175 

Liver, Work of 81-84, 92 

Liver Derangements of v 258 

Lobsters 129-130 

Lungs 87-93 

Macaroni 147 

Magnesum 122 

Malted Milk 17S 

Maltates 122 

Maltose 63, 69, 74 

Meat 127, 192, 199 

Meat juice how prepared 290-291 

312 



Meat tea how prepared 291 

Meat broth, how prepared 291 

Measures and Weights 281-283, 299 

Menus 223-282 

Milk 170 

Milk, clabbered 180 

Milk, skimmed 161 

Milk, condensed 180 

Milk, ways of serving 287 

Milk, tests 176 

Milk, sugar 180 

Milk junket 186 

Mind, Influence of 110, 113 

Mixed diet 219-222 

Mould 146 

Muscles, Work of 84-86. 93 

Mulberries 125 

Mutton 128 

Nerves, work of 86-87, 93 

Nervous disorders 272 

Neurasthenia 273 

Nephritis 269 

Nitrogen 20 

Nitrogenous foods 38-39, 65-66, 127 

Nutrition 13, 14 

Nutri-meal 143 

Nut Oil 57 

Nuts 169 

Oatmeals 156 

Oatmeal water 175, 290 

Oats 138 

Obesity 278 

Olive Oil 57 

Onions 117 

Oranges 123-125 

Orangeade 286 

Oxidation 26 

Oxygen 20 

Oysters 129-130 

Pancreatic tripsin 259 

Pancreatin 245 

Pastry 201 

Pasteurized milk 177 

Parsnips 119 

Peas 120, 163-165-166 

313 



Peaches 125 

Peanuts .163-164 

Pears 125 

Peristalsis 73, 76 

Peptone 72, 74 

Pepsin 71 

Peptonized Milk 244 

Phosphorous , 20, 21 

Pineapples 123, 125 

Pineapple juice 286 

Plums 125 

Pork 128-131 

Poultry 128-131 

Potatoes 116-117 

Potassium 122 

Predigested Foods 153 

Preservation of Foods 189 

Proteins 21, 22, 39 

Prunes 125 

Puffed Rice 158 

Puffed Wheat 159 

Purpose of Food 19 

Raisins 125 

Raspberries 125 

Rectal Feeding . , 256 

Rennin 71 

Rennet 175 

Rheumatism 275 

Rhubarb 120, 123 

Rice 138, 147 

Rice Water 290 

Roots and Tubers 115-119 

Rye 138 

Salt 47 

Sago 115-116 

Saliva, office of 69, 91 

Salivary Digestion 69, 71 

Sardines 129, 130 

Sedentary Occupation, diet f : r 225 

Semi Solid Foods 292 

Skin, work of 89 

Skimmed milk 179 

Smierkase 179 

Soups 133, 193 

Soups, receipts 29i-292 

31-1 



Sodium 122 

Souffles, receipts 298 

Spinach 120 

Spaghetti 147 

Starch 63 

Sterilized milk 178 

Stomach Digestion 71, 74, 91 

Strawberries 125 

Sugar 57 

Sulphur 134 

Sweet potatoes 116, 117 

Tapioca 115-116 

Tannic Acid 126 

Tartrates 122 

Tasty Meal Service 112 

Tea 183 

Tea Punch 287 

Thein 184 

Tired, Disturbed balance 107-110 

Toast Water 290 

Tomatoes 120 

Torpid Liver 261-263 

Turnips 119 

Ulcer of Stomach 250 

Uremic Poisoning 276 

Uric Acid 209 

Uric Acid, Excess of 277 

Veal 128-131 

Vegetables 202 

Vegetable Marrow 120 

Water 41, 186 

Watercress 120 

Watermelons 125 

Wheat 138, 140 

Whortleberries 123-125 

Whole Wheat Flour 143 

Wild Rice 148 

Wine Whey 2S6 

Yeast 144 

Young Child, diet for 225 



315 



APR 17 1912 



Foods 

Nutrition and Digestion 




Susanna Cocroft 



